Aaron Judge will start All-Star Game, two Yankees advance to Phase 2

Major League Baseball announced the results of Phase 1 of their annual All-Star Game voting, and we already know one Yankee who has his ticket punched to Los Angeles. It will come as a shock to precisely no one, except for maybe that mound of ants I saw hiding under a rock earlier today.

Aaron Judge has been absolutely phenomenal in a potential walk year for the Yankees, leading the major leagues with 29 homers in just 74 games while batting .290/.365/.636 with a 1.001 OPS and 178 wRC+ as of the start of play on Wednesday. He also just so happens to be one of the faces of the game and is starring on a team off to an unbelievable 56-20 start.

By earning 3,762,498 votes, Judge led all American League players and bypassed Phase 2 of the voting. In fact, he was the leading vote-getter in all of MLB, ahead of the National League’s top choice, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., by over 259,000 votes. Judge will be at Dodger Stadium on July 19th, and for the fourth time in his young career, he will start in the AL All-Star outfield.

The Yankees have a number of pitchers who might join Judge, but that’s not up to the fans. What we can do, however, is vote for two other Yankees who advanced to Phase 2 of the process.

Jose Trevino has been perhaps the most feel-good story of this juggernaut, and has never been an All-Star. The former Rangers catcher was acquired less than a week before Opening Day to split time with Kyle Higashioka behind the plate, but with a hot bat, clutch hits, and impressive defense, he has usurped Higgy and is the starter more often than not. Trevino is batting .271/.321/.450 with a 121 wRC+ and 2.1 fWAR, factoring in his framing and smooth glove.

Trevino got 1,109,206 votes, second among catcher behind Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk and 478,621 ahead of Houston’s Martín Maldonado. It will be an uphill battle beating out Kirk for the starting slot, as with an entire country behind him, the Blue Jays receiver nabbed over 3.2 million votes, and frankly, his numbers are just better. But as fans, we don’t have to be objective! Trevino will have a chance, head-to-head, and even if he doesn’t win, he has an awfully good case to be taken anyway as a reserve.

The other Yankee up for voting in Phase 2 is Giancarlo Stanton. The big guy needed to place in the top five among AL outfielders (where he was listed rather than DH), and he made the cut at fourth with 1,268,284 votes. Here’s who else will compete with him for the two spots alongside Judge:

• Mike Trout, Angels (3,381,758 votes in Phase 1)
• George Springer, Blue Jays (1,835,729 votes in Phase 1)
• Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Blue Jays (1,267,586 votes in Phase 1)

Stanton is hitting .244/.321/.525 with 19 homers and a 141 wRC+ in 2022, and that pure power production screams All-Star material. If he makes it, this will be his first appearance with the Yankees and the fifth Midsummer Classic of his career.

First baseman Anthony Rizzo came awfully close to advancing to Phase 2 as well. He’s reached 20 homers faster than he has in any other season of his terrific 12-year career, and while one can’t really call him a Comeback Player of the Year candidate since he was perfectly fine in 2021, he’s looked a lot closer to the Rizzo who won a World Series ring with the Cubs in 2016. Alas, he fell 67,201 votes short of the Mariners’ Ty France and well behind Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. France is injured at the moment though, so there’s at least a decent chance that Rizzo makes his fourth career All-Star Game as a reserve.

Here’s where the other Yankees who were on the ballot placed:

• 2B: Gleyber Torres, 4th (1,033,310 votes; Houston’s Jose Altuve and Toronto’s Santiago Espinal advanced)
• 3B: DJ LeMahieu, 4th (776,354 votes; Cleveland’s José Ramírez and Boston’s Rafael Devers advanced)
• SS: Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 5th (551,248 votes; Toronto’s Bo Bichette and Chicago’s Tim Anderson advanced)
• DH: Josh Donaldson, 6th (488,283 votes; Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani advanced)
• OF: Joey Gallo, 14th (432,828 votes; the aforementioned Judge, Trout, Springer, Stanton, and Gurriel advanced)

Phase 2 of the voting will begin on Tuesday, July 5th, at 12pm ET and will last until Friday, July 8th, at 2pm ET. Let’s get Trevino and Stanton to LA!