Lincoln Zdunich
Two weeks into All-Star voting for 2026, the positional leaders have made themselves clear despite a few close races. The Midsummer Classic is the one moment in the baseball calendar when the most elite players get to show off on the same stage. Getting to see Bobby Witt Jr. on the same team as Aaron Judge is something that exists only in the dreams of baseball fans and the American League roster for the All-Star Game.
That said, the Midsummer Classic always invites plenty of controversial decisions. Deserving players are snubbed for being less popular, while those who are not find themselves selected somewhat unworthily. Since fan voting as we know it today was implemented in 1969, All-Star voting has had its fair share of strange moments. Here are some takeaways with less than a month until the All-Star Game.
*all ASG voting stats through June 15
Biggest First-Place Snubs
1B Matt Olson, National League
The Atlanta Braves have had an incredible run throughout 2026. Until recently, they’ve been the best team in MLB by a long margin. A large part of that has been due to Olson. The first baseman boasts a .273/.345/.547 slash line with 20 homers for an .892 OPS. Among qualified batters, Olson leads Atlanta in home runs and slugging percentage. He ranks second in on-base percentage and OPS, and fourth in batting average.
Despite all that, Olson is second to Freddie Freeman by almost 70,000 votes. While Freeman has been good this year, his first-place standing is likely more due to the popularity of the Los Angeles Dodgers than Freeman’s statistics this season. The first baseman owns a .275/.366/.475 slash line with 12 home runs. Freeman has only been marginally better than Olson in batting for average, but the latter’s power hitting has been miles better than the former. That said, the two are the clear frontrunners in the NL first base category, each clearing third-place Bryce Harper by over 150,000 votes.
1B Ben Rice, American League
By far the biggest discrepancy on this list, Rice is second to the Toronto Blue Jays‘ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. by 100,000 votes. The New York Yankees slugger has had an historic season with the club. He’s top-10 across the American League in batting average (.294), on-base percentage (.389) and slugging percentage (.616), as well as second in OPS (1.005) behind only Yordan Alvarez.
Guerrero’s placement on the list is likely due to an entire country voting for him (more on that later). His stats don’t do much to back up his case for the All-Star Game. Not only is the slugger outside of the top-10 in all statistical categories in the AL, but he’s had a major power outage this season. Through 72 games, Guerrero has just three homers for a subpar .368 slugging percentage. Rice should easily be clearing him in voting. Instead, he’s struggling to keep up.
OF Jordan Walker, National League
This one is more the product of a talented and crowded NL outfield picture than any player with worse stats getting more votes. Despite the now-injured Ronald Acuña Jr., all of the outfielders ahead of Walker are plenty deserving. Andy Pages, Brandon Marsh, Michael Harris II and Teoscar Hernández could fill the All-Star roster incredibly well. The worst stats of the quartet result in a .271/.317/.436 slash line, more than enough to earn an All-Star selection.
But Walker has had a renaissance year with the surging St. Louis Cardinals. He boasts a .295/.347/.538 slash line with 18 homers and an .885 OPS. It’s been a long time coming for the Cards’ most exciting player, but he hasn’t put it all together until this year. Of the five players, Walker is the most deserving based solely on that incredible breakout.
The Blue Jays Are Winning the Popular Vote By a Landslide
Toronto has not had the best season. After losing the World Series in 2025, the Jays spent some money this offseason but it hasn’t helped them in the talented AL East. The club is in third place, just two games over .500, and hasn’t seen much production from any of their position players aside from Ernie Clement. But that’s impossible to tell looking at their All-Star voting totals. The club has tallied close to four million combined votes, more than any other club in the American League. As it stands, the only organization to beat them in total votes is the Dodgers. Unlike L.A., the offense doesn’t back up the votes for Toronto. The club ranks bottom-10 across MLB in home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. The production has been middling at best with a wavering, but talented, pitching staff.
So why the popularity? It’s easy to forget that MLB is, technically, an international sport due to the Blue Jays being based in Toronto, Canada. That simple fact means that, for All-Star voting, the club has an entire country voting for them, whereas the other 29 teams are being voted for by a divided U.S. Each team relies primarily on local fan bases alongside some international support due to their star players. For example, the Dodgers receive plenty of votes from Japan due to stars like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That support from Canada has been the difference for the Blue Jays’ popularity in the polls.
A Depressing National League Hot Corner
It says something that Max Muncy leads the charge for NL third baseman with a .265/.371/.518 slash line. It says even more about the sad state of the NL hot corner that Manny Machado is second in homers with 12 despite an abysmal .171 batting average. Muncy is the clear pick, 600,000 votes ahead of Alec Bohm, Nolan Arenado and Austin Riley. The trio has combined for a .228/.297/.373 slash line with a .670 OPS. The fact that those are the top-three choices behind Muncy speaks to just how subpar the group has been.
Muncy leads the group in home runs (16), but none has put up particularly star-worthy numbers. He’s currently on pace for a career-high mark in home runs (35) and batting average (.265). He’s been the frontrunner among the group solely due to the Dodgers’ popularity, but his stats have still been better than any other in the middling group. Surprisingly, Muncy is second in the Dodgers in voting behind Ohtani, with 941,218 votes to Ohtani’s 1,165,133. Not only that, he’s third in the National League and fifth across all of MLB in voting. That’s due to both Los Angeles’ popularity as well as his statistical advantage over the group.
