Kevin Pillar has a proposal for Major League Baseball, and it might actually make the All-Star Game watchable again. The former big league outfielder took to Foul Territory TV this week with an idea that cuts to the heart of a recurring problem: too many All-Stars, especially pitchers, are skipping the game.
Pillar’s fix is simple. Move the festivities back to Thursday and Friday. Give pitchers an extra day of rest so they can actually participate. And let the guys who did get selected enjoy a real break, not a glorified layover before the second half starts.
“Let’s make the All-Star Break an actual break for everyone involved,” the show posted on X. Pillar’s logic is hard to argue with. A longer break doesn’t just help the All-Stars. It gives every player across the league a little more time to reset. It also gives MLB more flexibility with the second-half schedule, which is currently a brute-force sprint to October.
Right now, the biggest issue isn’t the game itself. It’s that guys like Zack Wheeler, the Phillies ace, are getting left off initial rosters while other players decline invites. Wheeler has a 4.3 WAR this season, nearly matching the 5.0 he put up across 24 starts in 2025. He’s a three-time All-Star. He’s the anchor of a Phillies team that’s hosting the damn game at Citizens Bank Park. And yet, as of the initial roster reveal and a few replacement announcements, he still didn’t have a spot.
Fans noticed. Writers noticed. And now Pillar is basically saying: fix the calendar, fix the problem.
What a Longer Break Would Actually Change
More participation from top pitchers, for one thing. Right now, guys skip the game because the four-day break isn’t enough to justify the workload. Shift the festivities earlier in the week, and suddenly you’ve got a legitimate rest window for arms. More starters say yes. The game gets better talent on the mound. And the second half doesn’t feel like punishment for the guys who played in the exhibition.
MLB has already started adding replacement players to both rosters. Wheeler is almost certainly getting the call in the next day or two. But the fact that it takes a PR cycle and a social media campaign to get a pitcher of his caliber into the game says something about the current system.
Wheeler’s teammates — Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, Jhoan Duran, Cristopher Sanchez — will be in the home dugout next Tuesday. Whether Wheeler joins them or watches from the stands is still up in the air. But Pillar’s idea might be the most practical thing anyone’s suggested in years. It doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t require a format change. It just requires moving a couple of days on the calendar.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones nobody thinks to try.
Leave a Comment