The Orioles designated hitter is now an All-Star for the first time in his career.
The Orioles will have a player in the American League’s All-Star starting lineup this year. Ryan O’Hearn came out on top of the voting in the second round for the DH position, beating out Yankees DH Ben Rice to be named as the starter. O’Hearn was the overwhelming choice, winning the two-way vote by a 78-22 margin.
On the other end of a lopsided result was the other Oriole who qualified for the final round of voting. That’s Jackson Holliday, who was on the wrong end of a 66-34 result against Detroit’s Gleyber Torres. It remains fun that Holliday was playing well enough to make it into the final round. He wasn’t on Torres’s level. Maybe next year.
This is a lost season for the Orioles. O’Hearn being named as an All-Star starter is not much of a balm for that disappointment for fans. Still: It’s cool for O’Hearn. This is tracking to be a career year for O’Hearn at age 31. This time three years ago, he was kicking around the Royals organization, in the middle of his third straight negative value season. His fortunes have turned since arriving with the O’s for cash considerations in January of 2023. Even in the course of this season, his fortune turned: The AL’s best DH, Rafael Devers, got traded to the NL in a weird, way early trade shortly after the first round of voting opened.
So far in 2025, O’Hearn is batting .295/.383/.471. He’s already hit 11 home runs; his career high before now is 15, which is what he hit last year. This is not tracking to end up being a ridiculous “lone Orioles All-Star” selection in the vein of Ty Wigginton.
We don’t need to dwell long on the fact that O’Hearn is highly likely to be traded to somebody else between now and the end of July. The team isn’t where it should be and that means that high-performing, pending free agents are strongly likely to be dealt. Hopefully he can at least avoid the 2018 Manny Machado situation where Machado had to wonder if he was actively being traded during the game. (He was. They dealt him the next day.)
The complete All-Star rosters will be revealed at 5pm Eastern on Sunday. The bulk of the reserves will be chosen by the players, with the commissioner’s office filling in to get one player per team where needed. The Orioles already have their guaranteed one guy. Maybe Holliday will slip in as an infield reserve. Hard to imagine anybody else making it, but we’ll find out for sure on Sunday.