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Yesterday Major League Baseball released the second update of All-Star ballot. There’s a new selection system this year, so during the first round of voting, fans should keep an eye on the top three players for each position. By the end of the first round, those three will move onto a second ballot where fans will vote for that position’s starter for the All-Star Game.
So with that in mind, here’s an update on where several Yankees stand through the second ballot update of 2019.
Here’s the American League All-Star voting update. Jorge Polanco is still No. 1 among shortstops. C.J. Cron, Nelson Cruz and Eddie Rosario are also in position to move on to the next round of voting. pic.twitter.com/5eACfsTk1P
— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) June 17, 2019
Gary Sanchez still comfortably leads AL catchers with about 1.3 million votes, which is about 700,000 more than the catcher in second place, James McCann. Sanchez has 20 home runs which are the second most in the AL and the most by eight for AL catchers. It’s probably safe to say at this point that Sanchez will be the starting catcher for the American League.
Luke Voit is also still leading AL first basemen by about 100,000 votes, with his total nearly hitting 700,000. Through 309 plate appearances, Voit owns a .265/.385/.502 batting line with 17 home runs and 137 wRC+. The first base voting competition seems to be somewhat of a popularity contest. The first and second place vote-earners both come from two of the better teams in the American League in the Twins and the Yankees. It’ll be up to the two fan bases to decide who gets the starting spot.
Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela still place in the top three for their respective positions. Urshela sits well behind Alex Bregman by about 800,000 votes in second place. He’s cooled off of late, but it’s a testament to his remarkable hot start that he remains in the All-Star mix.
DJ LeMahieu sits in third place behind Jose Altuve and surprise candidate this year Tommy La Stella. LeMahieu is hitting .311/.355/.459 with eight home runs over 294 plate appearances. He leads the Yankees in WAR with a 2.6 total.
Gleyber Torres, on the other hand is in a pretty tight shortstop race, with several quality players all within a few hundred thousand votes of each other. Tim Anderson and Francisco Lindor sit not too far behind him as this vote could swing in just a few days.
So keep on voting Yankee fans, the more support your infielders get, the better the chance that you’ll see five players in pinstripes around the infield in Cleveland.