Aaron Judge is MLB’s leading man in first All-Star voting update

Major League Baseball’s voting for the All-Star Game began earlier this month, and today, the league issued its first update. One Yankee is leading at his position, and neither the identity nor the sheer vote total is particularly stunning — though it is appreciated!

No player in baseball has garnered more votes than Yankees superstar Aaron Judge, who has 1,512,368 to his name. He leads the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts by over 66,000 votes, and the only other AL player within a reach of him is Mike Trout with 1,295,854. Judge paces baseball with 25 homers in just 65 games and is off to a blistering start with a .301/.380/.647 triple slash and a 192 OPS+.

Although it would be fun for Judge to lead all of MLB in votes, it’s just aesthetics. He only needs to finish in the top three among AL outfielders to move on to Phase 2 of the voting in order to start the fourth Midsummer Classic of his career. However, per the linked MLB article above, if he leads all American Leaguers in votes, he’ll skip Phase 2 and move straight to the starting lineup. Judge has an over-200,000 vote lead on Trout for that slot, so he’s certainly off to a very good start in that regard.

Judge will need help from Yankees fans to potentially be joined by any position player teammates though. The closest in the mix is fellow masher Giancarlo Stanton, who ranks fourth among outfielders. Phase 1 ends at 2pm ET on June 30th, and if Stanton is among the AL’s top five outfielders in voting, then he’s guaranteed a slot in Phase 2. Here’s how he stands now:

1. Aaron Judge (Yankees): 1,512,368
2. Mike Trout (Angels): 1,295,854
3. George Springer (Blue Jays): 622,063
4. Giancarlo Stanton (Yankees): 504,537
5. Taylor Ward (Angels): 497,361
6. Byron Buxton (Twins): 403,050
7. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (Blue Jays): 381,591
8. Teoscar Hernández (Blue Jays): 374,226

Additionally, though Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk easily leads AL catchers in voting, new Yankees fan favorite Jose Trevino is second in voting with 387,983. For the non-outfield positions, the top two vote-getters from Phase 1 will move on to Phase 2, so if Trevino can hang in there, he’ll still have another shot at Kirk in the second go-around. He leads the Royals’ Salvador Perez by 121,379 votes and the Astros’ Martín Maldonado by 156,978.

Anthony Rizzo has an outside shot at surviving to Phase 2 as well. The resurgent lefty slugger is third among AL first baseman in votes at 445,683. He is over 138,000 votes ahead of fourth-place Luis Arraez, but trails leader Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (947,045) and the Mariners’ Ty France (596,030). He’ll need to at least surpass France to make it to Phase 2.

Three other Yankees also rank in the top five at their respective positions, though they are much further behind the pace to make it to Phase 2:

• Gleyber Torres has 379,095 votes at second base, where he ranks fourth but trails Jose Altuve and Santiago Espinal by at least 143,000. Andrés Giménez of the Guardians is also 135,887 votes ahead of him.
• DJ LeMahieu ranks fourth at third base with 281,955 votes. Boston’s Rafael Devers and Cleveland’s José Ramírez both have over 700,000 votes already, so he might already be out of luck.
• Isiah Kiner-Falefa is fifth among shortstops with 187,755 votes. All three of Bo Bichette, Tim Anderson, and Xander Bogaerts have over 500,000 votes, and are just better candidates. So it goes.

Cast your votes here, and let’s get at least Trevino and Rizzo — and maybe even Torres — to Phase 2 to possibly join Judge in Los Angeles!