Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani dominate initial All-Star Game vote

Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, who have combined to win five of the last eight Most Valuable Player awards, are lapping the rest of Major League Baseball in the first batch of All-Star Game balloting.

Judge, the New York Yankees' slugger who paces the majors in batting average (.378), on-base percentage (.473) and slugging percentage (.756) and shares the lead in homers (26), leads all players with 1,568,527 votes from fans.

Ohtani, who has amassed a MLB-best 73 runs to go with a .297 batting average, 25 homers and 11 steals, paces all National League players with 1,398,771 votes. The Los Angeles Dodgers' designated hitter is scheduled to pitch tonight against the San Diego Padres - his first mound appearance since Aug. 23, 2023, when he was still with the Los Angeles Angels.

This year's All-Star Game balloting process features two stages of fan voting. The current stage runs through Thursday, June 26. At that point, the top two vote-getters at each position (including six outfielders) in each league will engage in a run-off to determine which players will start July 15 at the Atlanta Braves' Truist Field.

Here are the top American League vote-getters at each position:

Catcher: Seattle's Cal Raleigh (1,043,168) and Toronto's Alejandro Kirk (370,460); First base: New York's Paul Goldschmidt (667,258) and Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (614,726); Second base: Detroit's Gleyber Torres (535,079) and Baltimore's Jackson Holliday (440,093); Shortstop: the Athletics' Jacob Wilson (562,696) and Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr. (519,984); Third base: Cleveland's Jose Ramirez (968,754) and Boston's Alex Bregman (397,581).

The top six American League outfielders are Judge, Detroit's Riley Greene (675,070), Los Angeles' Mike Trout (475,265), Cleveland's Steven Kwan (457,882), Detroit's Javier Baez (421,342) and New York's Cody Bellinger (416,858). Baltimore's Ryan O'Hearn (353,029) leads New York's Ben Rice (232,331) in the designated hitter category.

Ohtani and his Dodgers teammates are well-represented among the National League's top vote-getters at each position:

Catcher: Los Angeles' Will Smith (1,124,629) and Chicago's Carson Kelly (408,081); First base: Los Angeles' Freddie Freeman (1,136,389) and New York's Pete Alonso (895,900). Second base: Arizona's Ketel Marte (850,572) and Los Angeles' Tommy Edman (510,451); Shortstop: New York's Francisco Lindor (1,019,273) and Los Angeles' Mookie Betts (597,188); Third base: San Diego's Manny Machado (955,122) and Los Angeles' Max Muncy (415,750).

The top six National League outfielders are Chicago's Pete Crow-Armstrong (1,126,119) and Kyle Tucker (704,740), Los Angeles' Teoscar Hernandez (685,553), New York's Juan Soto (625,618), Arizona's Corbin Carroll (597,805) and Atlanta's Ronald Acuna Jr. (596,363). When Rafael Devers (796,382) was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, he bumped Chicago's Seiya Suzuki (358,138) out of the second spot in the DH balloting.

--Field Level Media