On Monday, Major League Baseball unveiled the last All-Star voting update before it reveals the starters next month.
Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez is the American League’s top vote-getter (3,754,594), while Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo (2,630,049 votes) owns a slim lead over teammates Ben Zobrist (2,474,852 votes) and Kris Bryant (2,459,704) in the National League.
Below are the leaders at each position:
Both lineups remain unchanged since the fourth round of voting updates, and only a small handful of positions look to be up for grabs before voting closes.
Lorenzo Cain is only 93,891 votes behind Mookie Betts for the final outfield spot in the American League. With the way Kansas City Royals fans have mobilized in the last few years to send their favorite players to the All-Star Game, closing that kind of gap in a few days isn’t impossible for Cain. Granted, a little over 31,000 votes separated Cain and Betts in the fourth update, so Betts’ advantage may only continue to grow.
In the NL, Yadier Molina is a little over 5,000 votes ahead of Buster Posey after having enjoyed a roughly 75,000-vote cushion in the fourth update.
Posey is arguably the more deserving candidate. According to FanGraphs, the San Francisco Giants star leads all NL catchers in WAR (2.3), while Molina is last (0.4) among qualified players at his position. In 68 games, Posey is batting .285 with eight home runs, 36 RBI and a .458 slugging percentage.
Besides Posey, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager and Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado are among the biggest snubs. They both have a 3.5 WAR, tied for eighth-highest among all position players, per FanGraphs. Seager is third in the voting at shortstop, while Arenado is second behind Bryant at third base.
Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor should also be getting more respect from the fans, at least relative to his performance. Not only has Lindor flashed a dazzling glove at short, he’s also batting .311 with 10 homers, 39 RBI and 12 stolen bases. Few can disagree with Xander Bogaerts being the AL’s starting shortstop, but Lindor not even being in the top five defies explanation.
Fan voting for All-Star starters closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, and the starting lineups will be announced on ESPN on July 5.
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