It was a bumpy road full of speculation, doubt and possible voting fraud, but on Sunday, the MLB officially announced the starting position players for this year’s All-Star Game – and it wasn’t nearly as bad as expected.
The Royals, who at times during months of fan voting appeared poised to garner as many as eight spots in the American League lineup despite some questionable numbers, had four position players earn starting jobs for the July 14 contest at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati: shortstop Alcides Escobar, catcher Salvador Perez and outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon.
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The Astros’ Jose Altuve beat out the Royals’ Omar Infante for the starting spot at second base in one of the more controversial races. The Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson set a record for most single-season votes all-time with 14,090,188 and will start at third base. The Mariners’ Nelson Cruz will start at designated hitter. And the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera received the nod at first base, though he’ll need a replacement due to injury.
The Yankees will not have a starting position player despite noteworthy candidates like catcher Brian McCann (.261 average, 13 HR, 52 RBI), first baseman Mark Teixeira (.243, 20 HR, 59 RBI), outfielder Brett Gardner (.297, 9 HR, 39 RBI) and Alex Rodriguez (.284, 16 HR, 47 RBI), who finished fifth in voting for designated hitters. All four will find out if they made the team as reserves during the second part of the selection show Monday night.
In the National League, the MLB-best Cardinals led all teams with two starters: outfielder Matt Holliday and shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper received 13,864,950 votes – a new all-time record for votes received by an NL player – and rounds out the outfield with injured Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who will also need a replacement. The other NL position-playing starters are Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon, Reds third baseman Todd Frazier, Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Giants catcher Buster Posey.
David Wright, who’s been injured for most of the year, was the only Met to finish in the top five at any position.
This year marked the first in which the league decided to conduct voting solely online, parting ways with the age-old paper ballots. Each fan was supposed to be allowed to vote 35 times, but the league suffered through some glitches in the system.
After noticing some severe inflation with the Royals votes, the league opted to nullify between 60 and 65 million votes in June.
