When your baseball team is one of the very best in the sport, your players are going to get noticed.
The Phillies have been one of baseball’s best teams for three years now. They captured the attention of the sports world during their surprising run to the World Series in 2022, provided some of the game’s most spine-tingling moments during the ‘23 Postseason, and this year have raced out to the best record in the National League and an eight-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East entering play on Tuesday.
The team’s popularity showed itself in spades while they were in London last weekend, and once again on Monday as Major League Baseball released their first batch of All Star voting.
And yes, it came with a large contingent of Phils at or near the top of every positional group.
It appears the Phillies will be sending more than one or two players to the Midsummer Classic this time around, and some of the vote totals Phillies players are receiving are off the charts.
Bryce Harper has collected more votes than any other player in the National League thus far, with 1,110,562. He leads Freddie Freeman among first basemen by about 400,000 votes, as he compiles another MVP season. Barring injury, he’s going to start at first base.
The most eye-popping numbers belong to Alec Bohm, who is no doubt having the finest season of his career, hitting .307 with an OPS of .848, a league-best 26 doubles, and 60 RBIs in just 70 games. Bohm has received 1,012,174 votes, more than 800,000 more than the next closest third baseman, San Diego’s Manny Machado.
What’s more, Bohm’s vote total exceeds that of renowned baseball uber-star Shohei Ohtani, whose 1,002,377 leads all designated hitters.
You read that right. More people have voted for Alec Bohm to start the All Star Game than Shohei Ohtani.
Certainly much of that is due to the competition for Ohtani at DH than Bohm’s at 3B. The decision to vote for Bohm is far clearer than the decision to vote for Ohtani over Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna. Still, for Bohm to have the third-most votes of any National League star, trailing Los Angeles’ Mookie Betts by just 20,000 votes, is insane.
Betts, by the way, leads Trea Turner by almost 500,000 votes, but Betts has a broken hand and may not be able to play. With Turner now back in the lineup after a six-week absence due to a hamstring injury, it’s entirely possible Turner will earn the nod at shortstop, which would give the Phillies three starting infielders on the All Star team. Bryson Stott sits in third place among second basemen behind Luis Arráez and Ketel Marte, a justifiable position given some of Stott’s struggles this year and the success of those two West Coast players.
The most hilarious vote totals, however, are in the National League outfield, where a severe talent drain has left voters searching for players they’ve heard of. Juan Soto is now in the American League, Betts and Harper have moved to the infield, and many of the remaining NL outfielders are underperforming.
Jurickson Profar has had a shockingly great season for San Diego and deservedly leads all outfielders with 900,000 votes. Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich and San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. are second and third, with the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández fourth. Those all seem right and good to me.
Here’s where it gets wild.
Three Phillies outfielders hold down spots 5-7: Brandon Marsh, Nick Castellanos and Johan Rojas.
As a unit, the Phillies’ outfielders have a combined batting average of .223 that ranks 23rd out of 30 MLB teams. Their .286 on-base percentage is third-worst. Their 22 home runs are sixth-fewest. Those are not good numbers.
Marsh was injured for the last two weeks and is largely a platoon player, but has had a fine season, hitting .263 with a .766 OPS all while playing outstanding defense in left field. While those numbers are worthy of consideration, it seems pretty clear his personality and postseason heroics are driving many voters his way. And that’s OK!
Castellanos has been one of the worst players in baseball this season. There’s no way to sugarcoat a -0.5 Wins Above Replacement, .209 batting average, .266 on-base percentage or .622 OPS. He has just nine home runs. There is no world in which Castellanos should be among the top-20 outfielders in All Star voting, let alone No. 6!
As for Rojas, the seventh-highest vote-getter was optioned to AAA Lehigh Valley on Monday to make room for Turner’s return after an abysmal season at the plate and regression in both his fielding and baserunning. While Rojas’ defense was still well above normal, it was not so good that they could live with the black hole he became at the bottom of the lineup. And yet, No. 7!
It’s great the Phillies are popular. They appear to have at least three surefire All Stars on offense in Harper, Bohm and Turner, one could make an argument for Kyle Schwarber or J.T. Realmuto (had he been healthy), and it’s a lock that Ranger Suarez and Zack Wheeler will make the team, too. Christopher Sanchez, Aaron Nola, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado also have great cases.
On the latest Hittin’ Season podcast, we broke it all down even further, discussed the need to trade for an outfielder soon, and wondered if NOW is the time to trade a top prospect to do so.
Oh, and there’s still time for you to continue stuffing the ballot for your favorite Phillies to reach the All Star Game!
