Mookie Betts is the leading All-Star vote-getter

On Tuesday, MLB released their first update of how the voting is going for the American League All-Star starters. Unsurprisingly, the Red Sox are relatively well-represented there, as they should be considering they have been at or near the top of the league from the very start of the season. This is obviously a team loaded with talent, and they are going to have plenty of representatives for the game in Washington in July. You can see the full voting results here, but below I’ll highlight what’s relevant to the Red Sox.

First and foremost, we should note that Mookie Betts is leading all of baseball in votes. There are debates about whether or not the Red Sox star is the best player in baseball (he’s not, but that’s okay), but All-Star voting isn’t all about that. Betts is incredible in terms of pure baseball skill and should be a face of the game on that alone, but he’s also a big personality with tons of charisma. The league should be getting him out there as much as they possibly can, and the fact that he’s the leading vote-getter right now should only further enforce that point. Betts has just about 750,000 votes, over 100,000 more than Mike Trout, who has the second-most among AL outfielders.

Along with Betts, the Red Sox have one other players slated to start as of this first update. That is the guy who has been jockeying with Betts for the top spot on the home run leaderboard all year, J.D. Martinez. The slugger is dominating the DH category with a whopping 513,415 votes. Giancarlo Stanton is in second, and he only has 231,885 votes. It would be a major upset if Martinez was starting and hitting in the middle of the AL lineup when the game is actually played.

Betts and Martinez are the team’s only starters as of now, but there are a couple more threatening. The red-hot Andrew Benintendi is sneaking his way up the outfielder ranks and is in sixth for this update. He isn’t showing any signs of slowing down at the plate, and he shouldn’t slow down moving up this leaderboard. Right now, he’s about 330,000 votes behind Aaron Judge for the third outfield spot. Meanwhile, Mitch Moreland is the most surprising name to be in the mix. He’s currently in second among first baseman, just 26,000 votes behind Jose Abreu. That one should be a close one all the way through.

In terms of snubs, it’s hard to be too mad about anyone being left out. I was a bit surprised that Xander Bogaerts wasn’t even among the top five shortstops, but it is a loaded class. Right now, the top five there are Manny Machado, Francisco Lindor, Didi Gregorius, Carlos Correa and Andrelton Simmons. That’s a tough group to crack.

Obviously, these only include positions players. Guys like Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel and maybe even Joe Kelly could be included in the game as well. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated on the voting and make sure you go out and vote yourself. Or don’t. I’m not your dad.

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