PSA Plays MLB The Show: Which Yankees are getting All-Star attention?

They Yankees are still in first place in our simulation of the 2020 season on MLB The Show, and the season is now in mid June. The All-Star Game is just a month away, and votes are starting to tally up for who will play in the All-Star Game.

The Yankees have a few near the top in terms of All-Star votes at their respective positions, so let’s take a look at which Bombers will be avoiding a vacation during the All-Star break.

One of the newest Yankees, Gerrit Cole, is near the top in votes for starting pitchers in the American League — currently sitting in fourth with 325,000 votes. In 104.2 innings so far this season, Cole has a 3.01 ERA with a league-leading 141 strikeouts. The leading vote-getter is Justin Verlander, who has a 2.64 ERA and a league-leading 0.94 WHIP in 112.2 innings, earning him 390,000 votes so far. Shane Bieber and Chris Sale are also currently ahead of Cole, while James Paxton has hit a cold stretch, inflating his ERA to 3.56 and dropping him outside of the top-10 in votes.

Let’s get to the funny part of this current simulation. The Yankees, heading into the season with arguably the best and deepest bullpen in all of baseball, have one reliever (not including closers) in the top-five of total votes so far, and that reliever is none other than Jonathan Holder. The righty is having a Comeback Player of the Year-type season, currently holding a 2.30 ERA in 31.1 innings, while striking out 32. His 90,000 votes are fifth-best in the American League right now, behind names like Luis Garcia, Richard Bleier, Marcus Walden and Noe Ramirez. The next-highest Yankee reliever is Adam Ottavino, currently 13th in the league in votes for a reliever.

Now let’s get to the closers, where Aroldis Chapman is third in votes right now with 340,000, though he’s more than 100,000 behind the top-two in Nick Anderson and Ken Giles. Chapman has a 2.45 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 25.2 innings, but that can’t best Anderson, who has a 0.38 ERA and 35 punchouts in 24 innings, or Giles, who has a 1.78 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 30.1 innings of work. Barring anything crazy, Chapman won’t finish on top this year.

Gary Sanchez was looking All-Star worthy until a recent cold streak, which has dropped him to seventh in the voting. He currently has 11 home runs and 216,000 votes, but it will be awfully tough to catch up to the leading vote getter in Christian Vazquez, who has 12 bombs, a .303 batting average and 340,000 votes.

DJ LeMahieu has also cooled off a bit, but he’s still second in total votes among second baseman thanks to a .298 batting average and 14 home runs. Still, it’s going to be tough to overtake the red-hot Whit Merrifield, who has 12 home runs, a .328 batting average and 165,000 more votes at the moment. Royals fans have really been hitting the voting booths.

Another Royal tops the votes in right field, as Jorge Soler leads the pack with 24 dingers and 65 RBI. Aaron Judge is down at sixth with his 16 homers, and is the only other position player sniffing a spot in the All-Star Game. The Midsummer Classic likely won’t be stacked with Yankees, but hey, they’re in first place, which I’m sure they care about more. After all, the 1998 Yankees had just David Wells starting in the All-Star Game.