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Ned Yost explains why he didn't pick A-Rod for the AL All-Star team

(AP)
(AP)

If you were rooting for anarchy to break out on MLB's All-Star roster announcement day, then you were disappointed to learn that Alex Rodriguez was named neither an AL All-Star reserve Monday, nor was he one of the five competitors put in the "Final Vote" race.

Has A-Rod been good enough to warrant All-Star inclusion? That's quite debatable, but some people think so. His OPS, for example, is .902 and that's 14th best in baseball, better than All-Star starters Josh Donaldson, Buster Posey, Albert Pujols and Lorenzo Cain. A-Rod's hitting .284 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs. Pretty good. Better than almost anybody expected from him.

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But All-Star worthy? Not to AL skipper Ned Yost, who explained his snubbing of A-Rod on ESPN. And it had nothing to do with PEDs or his soiled reputation. Via NJ.com's Brendan Kuty:

"We talked about A-Rod a lot," Yost said. "You look back at this five-man vote and we have three infielders, two outfielders, and we felt that it was important that we don't — we have Brock Holt that can play anywhere in the infield, but any other position we have a starter and a backup. In the outfield we have three starters and three backups. So I just felt very strongly that if we could get another infielder or another outfielder out of that five-man vote it would help us. That's what went in that decision."

Roster flexibility, eh? Well, A-Rod has had two hip surgeries, so flexibility isn't necessarily his thing these days. That's a joke, but seriously, A-Rod is mostly a DH nowadays.

It sure does sound like Yost is trying to build the AL All-Star team in his mold and not just picking the stars that he thinks fans will want to see in a showcase game. It's why the AL roster is deep with relievers and why he puts on a premium on a versatile player like Holt.

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That's certainly Yost's prerogative. Home-field advantage in the World Series is on the line and playing in front of the home crowd certainly helped the Royals' playoff run last season (though home-field in the World Series didn't help things end in K.C.'s favor).

His crew looks poised for another postseason run too. So if Yost is playing next week's exhibition game like it matters, you can't really fault him for leaving A-Rod at home.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!