Yankees: Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit lead after first AL All-Star voting update

The first AL All-Star voting update was released today and the Yankees have two players leading at their respective positions in Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit.

So far Sanchez and Voit are the only Yankees who lead the voting, while Gio Urshela sits in second among third basemen and Gleyber Torres (SS) and DJ LeMahieu (2B) each sit in third. Injured star Aaron Judge is in seventh place in the outfield voting.

This year the voting process to select the starters has changed and been split up into two rounds. The first round is called “The Primary Vote” which means fans will have until 4pm on June 21st to cast their votes. The top three vote-getters at each position will then move on to the final round of voting known as “The Starters Election” which will begin at noon on June 26th and end at 4pm on June 27th. This year Midsummer Classic takes place in Cleveland on July 9th.

With 12 days to go in the voting, the Yankees are in great shape to have their entire infield and Sanchez move on to the final round of voting. Based on the totals from the first update we can assume that Sanchez is pretty much a lock to start the game behind the plate for the AL and earn his second career All-Star selection. He has the third most votes among all AL players with 737,107 and he’s over 447,000 votes ahead of White Sox catcher James McCann who sits in the second palce.

Sanchez has been one of the team MVP’s for the Yankees in what’s been a huge bounce-back season for him so far. Entering play today he’s tied for second in the AL in home runs with 19 (in just 46 games) which is already one more than he hit all of last season. His OPS sits at a whopping .958 and his slugging percentage is .624. The crop of catchers in the AL isn’t very strong outside of EL Gary and with his skillset, this year figures to be the first of many starts for him at the ASG.

At first base, Luke Voit leads the Twins CJ Cron by just under 91,000 votes and with the Yankee fan base backing him, he has a shot to start in what would be his first ASG appearance. Voit’s numbers up to this point are very solid, but if he doesn’t win the fan vote he could face some stiff competition to earn a reserve spot over veterans like Jose Abreu, Carlos Santana, and Edwin Encarnacion.

It’s been a magical season for Gio Urshela so far and he should have no problem advancing to the final round of the voting at third base. That being said, he’s going to have a very hard time beating out Houston third basemen Alex Bregman for the starting nod who currently has over 360,000 more votes than him. Urshela deserves All-Star consideration thanks to his .309 AVG and gold glove defense, but his power numbers don’t really compare to guys like Yoan Moncada (CWS), Rafael Devers (BOS) and Hunter Dozier (KCR) who could earn a reserve spot ahead of him.

Even if DJ LeMahieu doesn’t win the starting spot at second abuse there’s no doubt he should at least be on the AL squad as a reserve. Right now he’s behind Tommy LaStella (LAA) and Jose Altuve (HOU) in the voting but he has over 200,000 more votes than Jonathan Schoop (MIN) who sits in fourth place. LeMahieu leads AL second basemen with a .321 AVG and 41 RBI and is first in all of baseball with a ridiculous .491 AVG with RISP. He’s an All-Star anyway you look at it and he’s also a realistic candidate for AL MVP.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Finally, Gleyber Torres has a decent chance to make his second straight All-Star game in his second big league season, but this time it could be as a shortstop. While Didi Gregorius was out for the first 61 games of the season Torres did an excellent job filling with a .274 AVG, 32 RBI and 14 HR which leads all AL shortstops.

The shortstop position in the AL is absolutely loaded with talent and All-Star caliber players but right now Gleyber is in a great position to advance to the final round of voting. He sits in third place behind Jorge Polanco and Carlos Correa but with Correa currently on the IL with fractured ribs, Torres could leap him in the standings by the next update.

As is the case with Voit, Torres might have to win the fan vote in order to earn a spot because guys like Tim Anderson and Xander Boagerts are just as deserving of one if not more so.

Keep voting for all your favorites Yankees by clicking here!

The first AL All-Star voting update was released today and the Yankees have two players leading at their respective positions in Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Schedule