MLB All-Star Game 2018 voting: Yankees’ Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge going in opposite directions

The 2018 MLB All-Star Game will be played on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 (7/17/18) at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, catcher Gary Sanchez, outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres are vying for spots in the American League’s starting lineup.

The latest round of MLB All-Star Game votes have been counted. It’s good news for Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who remains in the starting lineup for the American League in the 2018 MLB All-Star Game. But not-so-good news for slumping catcher Gary Sanchez, who’s been overtaken by Rays backstop Wilson Ramos.

Outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, second baseman Gleyber Torres and shortstop Didi Gregorius continue to receive votes, but remain behind at their respective positions.

Yankees prospects updates

Here is the press release from MLB with all the news:

Reigning American League Most Valuable Player Jose Altuve of the red-hot Houston Astros has jumped in front of all Major League players in the latest fan balloting update for the 2018 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard.  The latest AL balloting update was announced earlier today on MLB Network.  The 2018 Camping World MLB All-Star Ballot, which is available exclusively online and via mobile devices at MLB.com, all 30 Club sites and the MLB At Bat and MLB Ballpark mobile apps, will be accessible until the voting period ends on Thursday, July 5^th at 11:59 p.m. (ET).

Altuve, who has started each of the last three All-Star Games, has totaled 1,572,101 votes in his bid for a sixth Midsummer Classic selection overall.  The Puerto Cabello, Venezuela native would join Hall of Famer Rod Carew (six straight, 1970-75), Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar (four straight, 1991-94; five straight, 1996-2000) and Robinson Cano (five straight, 2010-14) as the only AL second basemen to win four consecutive fan elections.  The 28-year-old Altuve, who is followed at second base by rookie Gleyber Torres of the New York Yankees (534,758), leads the Majors with a .342 batting average and 102 hits to go along with five home runs, 37 RBI and 19 doubles.

In the AL’s closest race, Tampa Bay Rays catcher Wilson Ramos has received 678,159 votes to overtake Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees (618,899) behind the plate.  Ramos, in his second season with the Rays, is bidding for his second career All-Star selection following 2016, when he was a National League All-Star while playing for the Washington Nationals.  The Venezuela native would become just the fifth different Rays player to win a fan election (sixth time overall), joining designated hitter Jose Canseco (1999), third baseman Evan Longoria (2009-10), outfielder Carl Crawford (2010) and designated hitter Corey Dickerson (2017).  The 30-year-old Ramos is batting .286 on the season with nine home runs, 35 RBI, nine doubles and 22 runs scored.  Sanchez, an All-Star in 2017, is vying to become the first Yankees catcher to garner a starting assignment since Jorge Posada earned consecutive fan elections in 2002-03.  The 25-year-old Sanchez ranks second among all Major League catchers with 13 home runs and 39 RBI.

Overall, eight different AL Clubs are represented among the nine positional leaders.  The remaining AL leaders include: first baseman Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox (636,666), who is bidding to become the first White Sox player to win a fan election since Hall of Famer Frank Thomas in 1996; third baseman Jose Ramirez of the Indians (893,530); shortstop Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles (671,133); designated hitter J.D. Martinez of the Boston Red Sox (1,119,263); and outfielders Mookie Betts of the Red Sox (1,568,417), Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels (1,323,292) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (1,061,370).  Abreu is followed closely at first base by Boston’s Mitch Moreland (472,245), while Ramirez continues to pace Yankees rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar (509,188).  Houston’s Carlos Correa (458,367) surpassed Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor (420,674) and Didi Gregorius of the Yankees (413,135) in pursuit of Machado at shortstop, and 2017 NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton (478,872), now of the Yankees, continues to trail Martinez at designated hitter. 

For the fourth consecutive season, MLB’s All-Star Balloting Program will be conducted exclusively online and via mobile devices at MLB.com, all 30 Club web sites and the MLB At Bat and MLB Ballpark mobile apps.  Beginning on Friday, June 1^st, fans around the world can cast their votes for starters a total of 35 times with the 2018 Camping World MLB All-Star Ballot, including a maximum of five valid ballots cast in any 24-hour period.  Additionally, when fans vote they have a chance to win a 2019 Freedom Elite Motorhome, valued at over $85,000.  During the voting period, the 2018 Camping World MLB All-Star Ballot will be available in English, Spanish and Japanese, and will offer audio CAPTCHA functionality for visually impaired fans.  Banco BHD Leon will once again sponsor online All-Star balloting in the Dominican Republic, making Spanish-language ballots available to fans in the Dominican Republic via LasMayores.com, the official Spanish-language web site of Major League Baseball.

Details regarding the unveiling of the 2018 American League and National League All-Star Teams will be available in the coming weeks.  The AL All-Star Team will have nine elected starters via the fan balloting program, while the NL All-Star Team will have eight fan-elected starters.  The pitchers and reserves for both squads – totaling 23 for the NL and 22 for the AL – will be determined through a combination of “Player Ballot” choices and selections made by the Commissioner’s Office.  The AL squad will be managed by AJ Hinch of the defending World Series Champion Houston Astros, while the NL team will be led by Dave Roberts of the defending NL Champion Dodgers.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.