Aaron Judge voted onto American League All-Star team

The second phase of MLB All-Star Game voting came to a close today at 12pm ET. Aaron Judge earned more votes than any other American League outfielder in Phase 1, but he faced more of a challenge in Phase 2 when he only had to compete with five other outfielders. The toe injury that has kept him out of action since early June also hurt him in voting, but as ESPN just revealed, he finished third to earn a spot on the AL All-Star team.

Judge is now en route to his fifth career Midsummer Classic. Since becoming All-Star eligible in 2017, Judge has only missed the event once, in 2019 (the pandemic cancelled it in 2020). As one of the faces of the sport, Judge is this generation’s Derek Jeter and always has a good chance at earning the vote, especially coming off his 62-homer MVP season of 2022. Remarkably, despite the injury, Judge didn’t exactly punch his ticket this time through sheer popularity. It certainly helped, but even now, he’s tied with Mike Trout for third in the AL in outfielder fWAR, and only three AL players have topped his 19 homers in 49 games.

Judge is joined in the AL starting outfield by Trout and Rays standout Randy Arozarena. The Yankees captain is a near-lock to be replaced on the roster anyway due to that nagging toe, so there’s no harm in having him be voted onto the team when his numbers remain quite deserving. With Yordan Alvarez, who finished fourth, also expected to remain on the shelf, look for league RBI leader Adolis García of the Rangers to replace Judge in the starting outfield.

No other Yankees made it past Phase 1 in the voting process. Gerrit Cole seems like a good bet to make the All-Star pitching staff when full rosters are announced on Sunday, but outside of him, it’s pretty murky for the ol’ pinstripers.

Below are the other American League starters. Rangers fans really turned out for their team in what’s already their most competitive season in seven years.

C Jonah Heim (Rangers)
1B Yandy Díaz (Rays)
2B Marcus Semien (Rangers)
3B Josh Jung (Rangers)
SS Corey Seager (Rangers)
OF Mike Trout (Angels)
OF Randy Arozarena (Rays)
OF Aaron Judge (Yankees)
DH Shohei Ohtani (Angels)

For those interested, ESPN’s Jeff Passan has the NL starters.