3 surprising Blue Jays facts about the first All-Star ballot

The primary results of the All-Star game fan votes have been released and perhaps unsurprisingly, Aarond Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers are the leading vote getters in the American and National Leagues respectively. They are arguably the biggest names in the sport today, but that doesn’t mean other players aren’t being showered with love by the fans. That includes several Blue Jays who appeared on the first ballot, which was released by MLB.com on Monday.

3 surprising Blue Jays facts about the first All-Star ballot

The first Blue Jays fact that may have raised some eyebrows excitedly was the fact that Addison Barger has received the third most votes among AL third baseman. While he trails the leading vote getter, José Ramírez (968,754) of the Cleveland Guardians and Alex Bregman (397,581) of the Boston Red Sox by a wide margin (248,463) it’s still an impressive tally for Barger, who didn’t start the season on the big-league roster with Toronto.

Barger has been one of the Blue Jays best hitters since the beginning of May, hitting .295/.353/.549 with seven home runs and a .903 OPS and deserves some attention, but it will take a lot of work to catch up to those two names above him. Although, what may help is that Bregman has been injured since May 24 and has yet to return to the Red Sox lineup.

Secondly, someone who has more votes than Barger but is lower ranked in their respective category is Bo Bichette. The Blue Jays shortstop has received 316,538 votes, but that is only good enough for 4th among a crowded field of superstars at that position.

Bichette has had a good bounce back season but has only had about a 2-3 week stretch where he has been really hot. Among his peers, he ranks fifth in home runs (8), eighth in strikeouts (53), eighth in batting average (.267), ninth in OBP (.311), and ninth in OPS (.724). Jacob Wilson of the Athletics (562,696) is neck and neck with Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals (519,984) while Jeremy Peña of the Astros sits third with 341,515.

Lastly, someone who is having a really rough start to 2025, but still garnered the fifth most votes in their respective category is Anthony Santander. The Blue Jays DH has racked up 168,208 votes, despite hitting just .179/.273/.304 with six home runs and posting a -0.9 bWAR through his first 50 games. He’s trailing the leading vote getter, his former teammate Ryan O’Hearn of the Orioles by a wide margin and is only in the top five thanks to the recent trade of Rafael Devers. With Devers going from the AL’s Red Sox to the NL’s Giants, his 796,382 votes no longer count on the AL side of things. That means everyone moved up a spot, pushing Santander into the top five. Devers hasn’t played in a game since May 29 when he was placed on the injured list.

There’s no doubt things can still change between now and the All-Star game which takes place on July 15, but at this rate it looks like the Blue Jays are in a fairly good position to have some representation at the mid-summer classic as Vladimir Guerrero and Alejandro Kirk were both second in first base and catcher voting respectively.