Voting for phase 1 ends on Thursday.
With days to go until the first phase of 2024 All-Star Game voting ends, three Orioles lead at each of their positions with three more qualifying for the second phase of voting. It’s the second phase that will determine who is in the starting lineup at each position, so for those who’d like to see as many O’s as possible, continuing to vote daily through Thursday is as important as coming back to vote for the second phase.
The three positions where the Orioles player is currently in the lead are:
Catcher
- Adley Rutschman – 1,638,425 votes
- Salvador Perez (KC) – 1,033,099
Rutschman is handily the best catcher in the American League so far this season, so this is a well-deserved place for him in the voting. In bWAR, Rutschman has more than doubled up Perez with his performance up to this point, and in fWAR he has a lead of more than 1 point.
First base
- Ryan Mountcastle – 1,400,373 votes
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (TOR) – 1,338,688
It’s still surprising, but also still true, that Mountcastle has been one of the best first basemen in the AL so far this season, edging out Guerrero by 0.3 bWAR. It’s not a large gap between these two, but third place, Cleveland’s Josh Naylor, is nearly 550,000 votes behind Guerrero Jr. It looks like the phase two will be between these two guys, one of whom has previous year’s name recognition as a star and the other does not.
Shortstop
- Gunnar Henderson – 1,551,124 votes
- Bobby Witt Jr. (KC) – 987,689
Henderson continues to be the best player in the entirety of baseball so far this year, with an amazing 5.6 bWAR up to this point. He’s hitting great, fielding great, running great, and doing all of this while playing one of the game’s premium defensive positions at shortstop. It will be important to stay vigilant in the second phase of voting to make sure no weird injustice keeps Henderson out of the starting lineup.
Three more Orioles are currently in position to qualify for phase 2 of voting. Here’s what things look like at those positions:
Third base
- José Ramirez (CLE) – 1,426,755 votes
- Jordan Westburg – 846,352
Westburg is about 250,000 votes ahead of the third place player here, Boston’s Rafael Devers. Westburg is quietly on pace for a 6 WAR season, which would be beyond amazing. Ramirez has been one of the league’s best third basemen for a while and he is having another fine year. He’ll probably win on name recognition in the second phase, but Westburg deserves a bid too and hopefully will get one.
Outfield
- Aaron Judge (NYY) – 2,375,199 votes
- Juan Soto (NYY) – 2,136,383
- Kyle Tucker (HOU) – 1,002,803
- Steven Kwan (CLE) – 973,401
- Anthony Santander – 808,100
- Colton Cowser – 649,710
With a lead of under 140,000 votes, Cowser is the player most in danger of dropping off. The third Yankees outfielder, Alex Verdugo, is the current #7 guy in outfield voting, though Cedric Mullins is less than 500 votes shy of Verdugo.
Judge and Soto are two of the only three guys in MLB to break the 2 million vote mark in this voting update. Though I hate to admit it, they’re certainly earning their place. Tucker being injured could open up a position on the roster, possibly even the starting lineup. It would take a lot for Santander to break above that mix for the second phase, but if he wants to hit another five home runs between now and then and carry on his hot June, that will certainly be fun.
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Jorge Mateo sits in third place among the choices for second base, trailing Texas’s Marcus Semien by over 300,000 votes and the leader Jose Altuve by nearly 600,000.
At designated hitter, Ryan O’Hearn is not far off one of the top two spots. He is in fourth place, so he’s got two people to pass, but his 687,324 votes are within 30,000 of second place Giancarlo Stanton.
If you like what’s happening, the only way to keep that going is to keep voting. If you don’t like it, voting the max 5 times per day through Thursday is all you can do to change it.