Guerrero tops in all-star voting

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leads the way in many statistical categories in baseball, so it’s no surprise the Blue Jays slugger is at the front of the pack when it comes to all-star voting, too.

The 22-year-old Guerrero has amassed an MLB-best 857,956 votes in early balloting, the league announced Monday. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr. was second at 834,287, followed by injured Angels star Mike Trout (706,503) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (701,251).

Guerrero earned 51 per cent of all votes cast for American League first basemen, with Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox a distant second at nine per cent, and Yuli Gurriel third at eight per cent.

Blue Jay Marcus Semien is leading among AL second basemen with 34 per cent of votes at that position. Semien finished third in voting for the AL’s most valuable player award with the Oakland Athletics in 2019, but an appearance at this summer’s all-star game in Denver would be his first.

The Astros’ Jose Altuve is next among second basemen at 20 per cent, followed by the Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu with nine per cent.

Bo Bichette was at 15 per cent among AL shortstops, second behind Boston’s Xander Bogaerts at 31 per cent. Teoscar Hernandez (five per cent) and Randal Grichuk (four per cent) were fifth and sixth in the AL outfield tally.

Other Jays among the top 10 in voting after one round include: Danny Jansen, sixth among catchers; Cavan Biggio, seventh at third base; and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., fifth among designated hitters.

The first phase of voting ends June 24.

In each league, the top three vote-getters at each position (top nine in the outfield) advance to the second phase from June 27 to July 1 at 2 p.m., which will determine the starters for the July 13 game at Coors Field.

Starters will be announced on ESPN the night of July 1.

Pitchers and reserves for both leagues are handled separately, through a combination of player ballots and selections by the commissioner’s office.

Heading into Monday, Guerrero led the majors in on-base percentage (.450), slugging percentage (.688), on-base plus slugging (1.137), total bases (154), home runs (21) and RBIs (55).