KANSAS CITY – David Ortiz seemed lonely.

In recent years, the Red Sox would crowd a private jet with All-Star representatives. It became standard practice for the team to send an envoy of six or more players to the Midsummer Classic.

Such numbers offered an accurate representation of a perennially loaded roster built through both scouting and player development successes and a huge payroll that allowed the team both to acquire and retain top talent. Indeed, even with four, five, six and seven All-Star representatives, it was easy to identify deserving Red Sox even beyond that core group with a compelling All-Star case.

Not this year. In contrast to the usual row dedicated to Red Sox All-Star representatives, Ortiz had one isolated table in the corner during Monday’s media availability.

“It’s a little crazy, you know, not being able to see some of my teammates here like usual,” Ortiz acknowledged. “It was strange.”

Aside from the designated hitter, who is producing one of the greatest seasons in baseball history by a player who is 36 or older, there are no other Red Sox All-Stars. And ultimately, it’s hard to make a case that there should be.

There are 61 players in the majors this year with an OPS of .800 or better in at least 250 plate appearances. One of those (Ortiz) is a member of the Red Sox. That’s one fewer than the number of players in that category that the Red Sox traded away this past offseason (Josh Reddick, Jed Lowrie).

(Caveat: Given his huge power numbers, one can suggest that Jarrod Saltalamacchia was more deserving than, say, Matt Wieters. Still, given that the Orioles catcher is a Gold Glover with a higher OBP than his Red Sox compatriot, who enters the All-Star break with 17 homers but a .285 OBP, the selection is not unreasonable.)

There are 57 big league pitchers with a sub-4.00 ERA in at least 80 innings pitched. None are Red Sox.

In its own right, the fact that few Red Sox will take part in a July exhibition game is hardly a concern. But the fact that only one Sox player was deemed worthy of representation in Kansas City verges on alarming. It is evidence of a roster blueprint that has gone terribly awry.

The problem for the Red Sox this year has not been depth. To the contrary, it is depth that has kept the Red Sox afloat.

The organization has done a remarkable job of identifying fill-ins when regulars went down. Will Middlebrooks proved a revelation before his recent injury, making Kevin Youkilis (at least at the time of the trade that sent him to the White Sox) expendable. Daniel Nava, before a late skid into the All-Star break, delivered startling production in his return to the majors, particularly in terms of his on-base abilities.

Alfredo Aceves, Vicente Padilla, Scott Atchison, Andrew Miller and others all allowed the team to withstand the first-half loss of Andrew Bailey. The team received meaningful contributions from Scott Podsednik and Pedro Ciriaco, not to mention pitchers such as Aaron Cook and Clayton Mortensen. In the absence of those pleasant surprises, the team would be well below .500.

The Sox’ 43-43 record represents the club’s worst mark at the All-Star break since 1997. Still, Ortiz suggested that given the fact that injuries have carved several projected everyday players (Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Bailey, Dustin Pedroia at times, etc.) out of the lineup, the team can feel satisfied with the fact that it is within 2 ½ games of the second wild card spot.

That’s the glass half-full perspective. But there’s another way of viewing the Red Sox’ predicament.

Yes, the team has had a drastic array of injuries. But ultimately, the second most expensive roster in the game should be able to withstand the absence of multiple key contributors.

The Yankees are without CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera and Brett Gardner. The Orioles have been without Nick Markakis and Matt Lidstrom for significant stretches. The Rays have been without their best player (Evan Longoria), one of their starters (Jeff Niemann) and their expected closer (Kyle Farnsworth) for much of the year. The Jays have not only been without their closer (Sergio Santos) for most of the season, but also saw a wrecking ball of injuries hit their starting rotation in June, when they lost Brandon Morrow, Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison in the course of one week.

The Sox have certainly faced an extreme rash of injuries. The team has sent 20 players to the DL for a combined 23 DL stints, resulting in 945 games missed. All of those totals exceed the team’s “injury stats” from last year.

Still, those numbers are inflated by the absence of players like John Lackey and Bobby Jenks and Chris Carpenter and Jason Repko and others who were not necessarily expected to contribute.  Ultimately, the injuries that the Red Sox have incurred to their projected regulars (Crawford, Ellsbury, Bailey and, to a lesser degree, Pedroia) have not been drastically different from the rest of the division.

Moreover, it is worth restating -- the team has enjoyed remarkable performances from its fill-ins. So, even if the Sox have been an unusually injury-prone team, the impact has been dampened by the fact that the dropoff in production (at least outside of center field, where the Sox’ production has been close to the worst in the AL) has been minimized by surprising and impressive replacement performances.

That, in turn, focuses attention on the team’s struggles elsewhere, chiefly on the underperformance of the club’s healthy stars. The American League average pitcher this year has a 4.03 ERA. The Red Sox do not have a single starter who meets that standard.

Opening Day starter Jon Lester, an All-Star the last two years, has a 4.49 ERA that he characterized as representing an “(expletive) first half.” Josh Beckett, an All-Star in 2007, 2009 and 2011, has a 4.43 ERA. Clay Buchholz, an All-Star in 2010, has a 5.53 ERA. Lester has been healthy enough to make all his starts. Beckett has been dinged for a few starts, but ultimately, he’s been deemed fit for 14 first half outings. Buchholz was healthy enough to make 14 starts, until his recent gastrointestinal issue.

Offensively, Adrian Gonzalez just concluded a career-best 18-game hitting streak that featured precisely one homer. Though he leads the American League with 27 two-baggers, the Sox did not acquire him as a gap hitter who would offer a .329 OBP and .416 slugging mark (both career worsts for a half since he became an everyday player in 2006) along with six homers.

He should have been the constant who collaborated with Ortiz to give the Red Sox a ferocious middle of the order that permitted offensive consistency amidst all the injuries in the first half. Gonzalez failed to do that, resulting in an offense that, though second in the American League in runs per game, has been extremely streaky, prone to double-digit outbursts one day and then being shut down the next.

Had the team’s healthy stars performed to their levels, then the Sox easily could be atop the race for one of the wild card spots, rather than looking up at four teams in the chase for the wild card spot while being neck-and-neck with two other .500 teams.

Instead, the Sox are a team with one All-Star that is mired in mediocrity. Until and unless their stars begin performing like stars, it is difficult to imagine that changing.