The Blue Jays' most unexpected star is starting the All-Star game

Nobody could have seen this coming. Ernie Clement is not only an All-Star, but he's going to start at second base for the American League All-Stars. And not only is he an All-Star starter, he received more votes than any other player in the junior circuit.

That's more votes than his fellow teammates Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer and Kazuma Okamoto. That's more votes than other established stars such as Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees, Bobby Witt Jr. of the KC Royals, more than Mike Trout of the LA Angels.

A total of 3.2 million votes were cast for Clement with only LA Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani getting more than him, at 3.3 million. Flash back to this time last year, and you'll see why this is one of the craziest turn arounds in the history of the game.

Clement's rise to superstardom almost comes out of nowhere

At the end of June 2025, Clement was putting up the best numbers in a full season in his career. He was slashing .292/.313/.437 with a 107 wRC+ and seven home runs. In the 77 games he had played in, Clement had 86 hits, 20 of which were doubles, had knocked in 28 runs and had only 32 strikeouts in 295 at-bats.

Great numbers for a guy that had basically been a utility player over his first four MLB seasons up to that point. Clement also didn't really even have a permanent position on his own team. He would play second when Andrés Giménez needed a day off. He was at shortstop when Bo Bichette was banged up. He was at third when the matchups seemed to favour him over anyone else.

But he earned that playing time by producing consistent, above league average numbers and also managed to play at a high level defensively, no matter where he was on the field. But to go from one break out season to being the second most popular player in the league is absured - and well deserved.

Clement would be a big reason to why the Blue Jays won the AL East in 2025. He was then a very big reason for why they got to Game 7 of the World Series. He set an MLB record for hits in a postseason with 30 and almost ended the series, twice, by getting to the plate with the winning run in scoring position in both Game 6 and Game 7. While he came up just short on both of those occasions, Blue Jays fans have not only not held those at-bats against him, but they have elevated him to a whole new level.

The Toronto faithful love their Ern Dog and he's certainly deserving of this nod with the type of season he is having in 2026. He’s hitting .292 with a .750 OPS and 20 doubles, tied for the most in the AL. With John Schneider already being named the team's manager of the All-Star game, Clement will join his skipper for the mid-summer classic festivities on July 14 i at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

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