📌 Join the BPCrew Chapter in your city and meet up with more Yankees fans! 👉 CLICK HERE

Yankees represented well in first All-Star ballot update

In the first American League All-Star Ballot released today, six Yankees players are within the top three in votes within their respective positions.

The most surprising player on this list is Gary Sanchez. He leads Wilson Ramos by roughly 16,000 votes, yet Sanchez has experienced a rough and unlucky season to this point. He is batting a dreadful .190 with 12 homers and 35 RBI, as opposed to Ramos who is batting .285 with seven homers and 30 RBI. Similar production between both catchers, but the difference in hits really sticks out. The fans have chosen Sanchez hoping he will return to form sooner than later.

Slightly less surprising is Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar, who both did not even begin the season in the majors, in second place. From a production standpoint, both belong. Still, it is incredible to see these rookies fight for a starting position in the All-Star Game.

With Shohei Ohtani likely out for an extended period of time, the AL Rookie of the Year race essentially comes down to these two players. Torres is slashing .297/.356/.559 with 11 home runs, 29 RBI and a 143 OPS+. Andujar is hitting a modest .310 with an .891 OPS and 28 RBI. He is a doubles machine, as he already has 21 on the season.

Torres (279,810 votes) trails Jose Altuve by over 400,000 votes, so he may not be a starter. But he is almost a sure lock to be a backup, as the next leading vote getter is Dee Gordon with 87,647. Andujar (219,641 votes) has slightly less votes to overcome Jose Ramirez (443,234 votes). Alex Bregman is at third place with 180,911 votes.

At shortstop, Didi Gregorious (208,583 votes) has Francisco Lindor (211,756 votes) and Manny Machado (321,887 votes) to surpass in order to be named a starter. Gregorious made an excellent case for his first All-Star game in April, although he struggled mightily in May.

It is hard to vote against Machado right now, as he is putting up MVP-caliber numbers, however Gregorious can definitely rival Lindor. If he can reel in the player that hit 10 home runs and drove in 30 in the month of April, it will be hard to deny Sir Didi

Based on how the season has unfolded so far, it is hard to imagine an All-Star outfield without Mike Trout or Mookie Betts. The same thing goes for Aaron Judge, who should be on his way to his second All-Star Game. He leads the next leading vote getter in the outfield, Michael Brantley, by roughly 400,00 votes. These three players are emerging as the premier outfielders in the AL, and they should be rewarded as such.

Lastly, Giancarlo Stanton (231,885 votes) is having a tough time keeping up with the monster numbers put up by J.D. Martinez (513,415 votes). To Stanton’s credit, he is slowly starting to return to the NL MVP we saw last year in Miami and could get hot before the All-Star Break.

Yankees fans, remember to vote! Go to yankees.com/vote to cast your ballot now!