Royals fans can’t believe how far ‘The Shredder’ went with Maikel Garcia disrespect

One unfortunate narrative Royals fans have gotten used to this past season, but especially this winter, has been how underrated their star third baseman in Maikel Garcia has been to the rest of the baseball world.

The newly-extended Garcia has become quite the endearing figure amongst the Royals fanbase, after breaking out last season and crafting a 121 wRC+ and 5.6 fWAR.

But as much as he’s viewed as a core member of this lineup and key figure to Kansas City’s competitive future amongst the Royals faithful, the rest of the league has seemingly not caught up to the hype. And it’s become less underappreciating and more flat out disrespect with each passing instance.

The first happened way back in the summer, when it took several injury replacements to finally get Garcia his righful spot in the All-Star game.

Then came awards season, which started off well, with his AL leading DRS, OAA and FRV at third base being recognized with his first career Gold Glove award. However, that’s where the recognition stopped.

Garcia was shockingly snubbed of the AL utility Silver Slugger and was passed up for any sort of recognition in the All-MLB teams. On top of that, more omissions from lists like MLB.com’s All-World Team just added more salt to the wound.

But this week, as MLB Network’s MLB Now goes through their Top 10 players at each position right now, the Garcia disrespect hit an entirely new level courtesy of “The Shredder”.

“The Shredder” is MLB Network’s ranking tool which, as MLB.com’s Brian Murphy describes it, ranks players “based on past performance, various offensive and defensive metrics (including both advanced statistics and traditional numbers) and analysis by the MLB Network research team”.

This year, when determining the Top 10 thrird baseman in baseball, “The Shredder” didn’t just under-rank Garcia, they didn’t include his name on the list at all.

Royals fans outraged by Maikel Garcia’s blatant omission from MLB Network’s Top 10 third baseman list

While the Royals faithful likely wasn’t advocating for Garcia to be considered the best third baseman in the game, given the season he just had, they definitely wanted at the very least some recognition for his efforts, much like MLB Now host Brain Kenney ranked Garcia in the middle of the pack at No. 6 on his personal list.

This omission obviously had fans feeling none too pleased to put things nicely.

Even Garcia’s fellow corner infield teammate, Vinnie Pasquantino reacted to the list, making his thoughts clear with a classic but accurate meme.

Now, the biggest likely reason as to why Garcia was left off the The Shredder’s list was likely the fact that this was a one breakout season. Just looking at fWAR and wRC+, Garcia went from a 1.2 fWAR and 71 wRC+ player to a 5.6 fWAR and 121 wRC+. Past performance is, after all, one of it’s ranking criterion.

However, if this is to be the Top 10 third baseman right now like the list entails, a name like Garcia who ranked amongst the Top 5 qualified primary third baseman in all of baseball in fWAR (2nd at 5.6), wRC+ (5th at 121), AVG (2nd at .286), OPS (4th at .800), RBI (T-5th at 74), K-rate (4th at 12.6%), walk rate (5th at 9.3%) and again won the AL Gold Glove at the position, surely he has to at least be on the list, even if it was just his first year of real success.

What’s equally as frustrating is some of the names included ahead of them.

Most eyes likely went to Max Muncy at No. 2 as being the most outlandish take, and rightfully so. While is 2025 season was strong, he did miss 62 games (after only appearing in 73 games in total in 2024) and hasn’t been an over 3.0-fWAR player since 2021.

Then, there’s Austin Riley at No. 10, which in all fairness given his prior track record, isn’t a terrible spot for him.

However, is it really fair to have him on this list of Top 10 third baseman right now, at the expense of Maikel Garcia? After all he’s coming off back-to-back unhealthy seasons that’s seen him fall from an over 5.0 fWAR player to now just a 1.7 fWAR player last year.

Personally, the most egregious name on this list in my opinion is Bo Bichette. He’s coming off a great season with the AL Pennant winning Blue Jays and is an exciting addition for the Mets in 2026.

There’s just one issue though, the guy has has yet to play a single game of third base in his big league career.

I get he’s anticipated to play there next season in Queens, but how can anyone honestly say that a player who’s never taken the field in a major league game at certain position is one of the Top 10 names at that position?

I understand what the plans are for him and maybe he makes me eat my words this time next year, but perhaps it’s best to leave Bichette off the rankings entirely until he does get more than practice field reps at the position.

At the end of the day, these lists are merely an avenue for fans to have spirited debates about who the best players in the league are in their eyes. And by that logic MLB Network has achieved just that.

However, after the season and subsequent stretch of winter months of consistent underappreciation Garcia has gone through, perhaps it’s time just cut the guy a break and acknowledge the star that appears to be blossoming before our eyes.