The Orioles ended up with two players finishing in the top two at their positions.
The first round of All-Star voting is complete. Two Orioles are officially moving on to the second and final round. Ryan O’Hearn led all vote-getters for the AL’s designated hitter position, with Jackson Holliday finishing as the runner-up behind Gleyber Torres at second base.
Under the relatively recent gimmick of MLB’s two-round All-Star voting system, the first round of voting is meant to winnow each position down to two (six outfielders). A second round of voting then takes place with only those finalists as the choices. This second round is what determines who makes it onto the roster as an All-Star starter.
O’Hearn’s competition is Ben Rice of the Yankees. Rice has hit 14 home runs through 68 games, with an overall batting line of .238/.324/.489 so far this season. That’s a substantially lower value than O’Hearn’s .301/.384/.485 batting line. If there is any justice, this outcome is fairly clear.
Worth remembering: This opportunity only opened up because of the Red Sox weirdly dumping their star Rafael Devers onto the Giants. Devers would have handily beaten either O’Hearn or Rice.
That’s probably what is going to happen at second base with Holliday. His competition is Detroit’s Gleyber Torres, who’s in the midst of an excellent season where he’s walked more than he’s struck out while batting .280/.384/.419. The Tigers, of course, are also the best team in the American League so far, which won’t hurt him heading into the second round. Holliday, at .259/.310/.411, is doing fine, but fine isn’t going to get you the starter bid. It is fun for Holliday that he managed to hold off nine-time All-Star Jose Altuve in making it to the second round.
All votes have been reset heading into the second phase of the voting. It’s a short second round, as the voting only opens at noon on Monday and remains open through noon on Wednesday. That will determine who makes it as the All-Star starters on July 15. The runners-up are not guaranteed to make the All-Star team, as reserves are determined by player balloting with some additions as needed to adhere to the “each team has at least oen All-Star” rule.