Originally published by DodgerBlue.com
Major League Baseball announced the second update for Phase 1 of the 2024 All-Star Game voting, and three Los Angeles Dodgers players are in position to advance, while two others have a chance to move on.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani both lead at their respective positions, with the latter having a significant lead over Marcell Ozuna from the Atlanta Braves. Betts maintains a roughly 50,000 vote lead over his former teammate, Trea Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Teoscar Hernández also moved into third among National League outfielders in the latest update, surpassing San Diego Padres’ star Fernando Tatís Jr.
All three players would move on to Phase 2 of voting, where the starters would be determined.
Ohtani seems like a safe bet to start as the DH, while Betts will of course miss the game due to his left hand fracture. Hernández faces a crowded outfield group, with all the top vote-getters at that position being within roughly 200,000 votes of each other.
On the outside looking in, Will Smith remains third in voting behind the Milwaukee Brewers William Contreras and Phillies J.T. Realmuto. Despite Smith being arguably the most-deserving catcher of the mix, he trails Realmuto by around 125,000 votes.
If Smith can overtake Realmuto, he would advance to the second round of voting and have a chance to start the game.
Freddie Freeman trails Bryce Harper of the Phillies by roughly 700,000 votes, and since Harper is the leading vote-getter overall, he would advance directly to a starting spot at first base. That would push Freeman out of Phase 2 of voting.
Freeman’s only chance of advancing is if Ohtani (1,773,404) votes could overtake Harper (2,037,523) as the top vote receiver, but those odds are stacked against him.
The first phase of the 2024 MLB All-Star Ballot enters its final days with voting set to expire in less than 72 hours on Thursday, June 27th at 9:00 a.m. PT. The ballot is available exclusively online and via mobile devices at MLB.com/vote, all 30 club web sites, the MLB App and the MLB Ballpark App.
MLB All-Star voting leaders
National League
C: William Contreras, J.T. Realmuto
1B: Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman
2B: Ketel Marte, Luis Arraez
3B: Alec Bohm, Manny Machado
SS: Mookie Betts, Trea Turner
DH: Shohei Ohtani, Marcell Ozuna
OF: Jurickson Profar, Christian Yelich, Teoscar Hernández, Fernando Tatís Jr., Brandon Marsh, Nick Castellanos
American League
C: Adley Rutschman, Salvador Pérez
1B: Ryan Mountcastle, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
2B: José Altuve, Marcus Semien
3B: José Ramírez, Jordan Westburg
SS: Gunnar Henderson, Bobby Witt Jr.
DH: Yordan Alvarez, Giancarlo Stanton
OF: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Steven Kwan, Anthony Santander, Colton Cowser
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