Ranking the All-Star ballot decisions, toughest to easiest
Voting for All-Star Game starters resumed at noon ET on Monday, giving fans exactly 48 hours, until noon ET on Wednesday, to cast votes for the finalists. In other words, you have to think fast -- very fast. So allow me to be of service.
I’m not going to tell you whom to vote for today: You’re the only person who can do that, by looking deep inside your heart. But I can tell you how difficult it’s going to be. Let’s go through, position by position, and rank them by difficulty, hardest to easiest. There are all sorts of tough decisions here. Here are the toughest.
(Note: This is your reminder that you won’t find NL designated hitter or one of the three AL outfield spots on here, because Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge were the top two vote getters during Phase 1 and are therefore already cemented in the ASG starting lineup.)
Note: Stats below are through Sunday’s games.
1) NL shortstop
This was the most loaded position during the first round of balloting, which meant there was somehow no room for the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz, the Phillies’ Trea Turner, the Cubs’ Dansby Swanson, the Nationals’ CJ Abrams or the Cardinals’ Masyn Winn among the finalists. Now, it comes down to two of the most recognizable, revered players in the game: the Mets’ Francisco Lindor and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts.
The irony here is that neither is actually having one of their greatest seasons. Lindor’s OPS is down from last year’s .844 to .774, while Betts’ .707 OPS is by far a career low. That doesn’t mean either shouldn’t be in the All-Star Game, though. These are still the exact guys you want to see out there. I wonder if a potential tiebreaker is that, somehow, Lindor still hasn’t made an All-Star team as a Met despite being the clear heart and soul of that team.
2) NL first base
This is a stacked position -- sorry, Bryce Harper! -- but it’s impossible to argue the voters didn’t land on the right two finalists. The Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman just somehow keeps getting better every year, while the Mets’ Pete Alonso got off to a torrid start and settled into, well, having the best OPS among all first basemen in MLB (including Freeman).
Also, both would be received with much noise in Atlanta: Freeman for being a franchise icon (and champion) with the team, and Alonso for being a Braves villain for more than a half-decade. I’d like to watch both of these guys bat in the first inning of the All-Star Game. But only one can.
3) AL outfield
There are only two spots here, with Judge occupying one, and his absence clears out the only easy call in the outfield. The other options are absolutely fascinating. You have the Tigers’ Riley Greene, who made the All-Star Game last year but is having a better season this year -- and for a first-place team. You have his teammate Javier Báez, a player many thought to have the worst contract in baseball but has now emerged as indispensable for that aforementioned first-place team.
You have the Guardians’ Steven Kwan, one of the most purely enjoyable players in the sport to watch. And you have, of course, Mike Trout, who has made more All-Star teams than any active player, with 11. How you fill out this ballot is a bit of a Rorschach test for what you value most in your All-Star starters. Is it about the best seasons? The best stories? The best careers?
4) NL outfield
Unlike in the AL, we’ve got three spots to fill here, and we’re gonna need all three. You’ve got three transcendent superstars in the Mets’ Juan Soto, the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker and the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. You’ve got perhaps the breakthrough player of the first half in the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong. And you’ve got two Dodgers in Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages.
The default for many might be to just punch in those first three superstars. (A group that didn’t even have room for the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., the Nationals’ James Wood and the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll.) But can you really keep Crow-Armstrong, or those Dodgers, out of this game?
5) AL second base
Some outside observers dinged the Tigers for having Gleyber Torres turn out to be their biggest offseason lineup addition, particularly when Alex Bregman was interested and available. Torres has turned out to be a godsend for the Tigers, though, leading all AL second basemen in OPS and putting up a career-high 134 OPS+ that tops even what he posted during his two previous All-Star seasons with the Yankees.
But the emergence of the Orioles’ Jackson Holliday over the past two months complicates this decision considerably. Not only has Holliday been instrumental in the Orioles crawling their way back to respectability (15-11 in June) after their miserable start, he’s also a rising star in the sport. Voting for him is a vote, essentially, for the future -- the first of many ASG nods for him. You can’t go wrong either way.
6) AL shortstop
The Athletics’ Jacob Wilson is one of the most purely fun stories of the first half, as he’s the obvious front-runner for the AL Rookie of the Year Award, leading all rookies in OPS, runs and total bases. (He’s also batting .338.) But he’s also up against the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., one of the game’s signature stars and the guy who would have won the AL MVP last year had Judge not been Judge.
Witt’s numbers are down a little this year, certainly below Wilson’s, so the call you’ve got to make here is to decide between the rookie having a torrid first half or the young star who isn’t having his best season but is still the sort of player everyone wants to see in the All-Star Game. It may just be a matter of personal preference.
7) NL third base
We’ve got a couple of NL West rivals here, with the Dodgers’ Max Muncy and the Padres’ Manny Machado. Their overall numbers are very similar, at least offensively, but Muncy gives you a little more OBP, while Machado has a higher batting average and slugging. It may help that Machado is just seven hits away from 2,000, a career milestone he will reach by the time the All-Star Game arrives.
8) AL first base
This was the only position to have a change atop its leaderboard between the first and second updates of Phase 1, with the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. overtaking the Yankees’ Paul Goldschmidt. We’ll get the definitive answer in this round, a matchup of a couple of All-Star veterans: Goldschmidt is seeking his eighth All-Star nod, and Vlad Jr., despite being a full decade younger, is seeking his fifth. No matter how you pick, you’re getting a bold-faced name, which is a large part of the point of the All-Star Game in the first place.
9) AL designated hitter
This would have, obviously, been Rafael Devers, when Devers was still in the American League. But now he’s not! So we’ve got two very unconventional picks here, the Orioles’ Ryan O'Hearn and the Yankees’ Ben Rice. O’Hearn is hitting over .300 and has been one of the most reliable mainstays in Baltimore's lineup; Rice has the highest slugging percentage among all qualified DHs. The real shock here: That these two guys are the two finalists at all. Who in the world saw that coming?
10) NL second base
The Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte has, for his entire 11-year career, been underappreciated by your average fan: How has he made only two All-Star Games? He finished third in NL MVP voting last year and is having an even better year this season. He’s easily the best offensive second baseman in all of baseball.
The only reason this is even slightly a question is because the other guy on the ballot is the Dodgers’ Tommy Edman, who has never made an All-Star team but has become one of the most beloved, integral players for the most high-profile team in baseball. They both belong here … though it sure feels like it’s time to start getting that ASG total higher for Marte, doesn’t it?
11) AL third base
Bregman was excellent for the Red Sox at the beginning of the season, putting up a .939 OPS for the first month and a half. But then he strained his right quad in May, and he hasn’t played since -- and won’t be back until after the All-Star break. Considering the (typically) great year the Guardians’ José Ramírez is having (his power is down a tad, but he's hitting over .300 and his OBP is the highest it has been in nearly a decade), there’s no reason not to give him his seventh All-Star appearance.
12) NL catcher
Carson Kelly has been a pleasant surprise for the Cubs this year. But the Dodgers’ Will Smith has just been downright fantastic, in every possible way. Smith was third in overall votes behind Judge and Ohtani during Phase 1, and he leads the NL in batting (.318), with a stunning .413 OBP. The two catchers’ slots are very, very easy to fill out this year.
13) AL catcher
The Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk is an inspirational story this year, a guy who sort of came out of nowhere to start an All-Star Game in 2022 (while catching his mic’d up teammate Alek Manoah) but then struggled for a couple of years before returning to his All-Star form this year. But he’d have to be hitting like peak-era Barry Bonds to have much of a case against the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh, who is one of the best stories in baseball. He’s on pace to hit the most homers ever by a catcher, he was second in AL ASG voting behind Judge and he’s nicknamed Big Dumper. We love you, Kirk, but this is, obviously, the easiest call on the ballot.