Based on his incredible performance during the Blue Jays run to the World Series last year and his past accomplishments, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock to see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. being a leader in MLB all-star game voting.
But when you consider how Toronto’s cornerstone first baseman has played this season, even Vladdy himself is surprised to see his name atop the leaderboards.
“I was surprised that I’m in first,” Guerrero told The Athletic in Boston. “There’s a lot of first basemen doing a better job than me. But I don’t control the fans, I don’t control the vote.”
When MLB revealed its latest update in all-star game voting on Monday, Guerrero was on top of the polls at first base for the American League and leading Ben Rice of the Yankees by nearly 94,000 votes.
What did Blue Jays fans say about the vote results?
Some Blue Jays fans had the same reaction as the star first baseman, feeling that he hasn’t played near a level worthy of mid-season honours.
“Vlad should not be anywhere close to an all star game,” one user posted on X.
“Unbelievable. Possibly (Louis) Varland and Clement, otherwise NO,” another replied.
“There is no way on this Earth that Vlad should be voted an all star,” one Toronto Sun reader commented.
“Who would vote for Vladdy, unless they are voting for the guy most likely to hit into a double play?” another reader joked.
What are Vladdy’s stats saying?
It’s hard to look at Guerrero’s stats this year and justify the $500-million US contract that he signed last season.
He has lacked any sort of power in his bat, having hit just three home runs this season. In fact, he hasn’t gone yard in a month (May 17 against the L.A. Angels) and he has yet to have a home run at Rogers Centre this season.
He was able to return to Toronto’s lineup on Tuesday night in Boston after missing two games with an ailing back, but went 0-for-4 in the Jays’ 6-1 win.
With a .726 OPS, three homers and 27 RBIs, Guerrero is on pace to set career lows in each category this season.
In comparison, Rice has hit 16 more homers, has 20 more RBIs and has posted an OPS of .845 — 281 points higher than Guerrero.
Will Vladdy actually be an all-star?
There is still a week to go in this phase of all-star voting, meaning that Guerrero might not hold on to his lead over Rice. The Jays cornerstone already has the smallest vote tally of any American League leader at this point, so it’s certainly up in the air.
And despite leading his position in voting, there certainly are no guarantees that Vladdy will be headed to Philadelphia for next month’s game.
This first phase of voting serves to whittle down the field and clinches starting spots for just two players total, the top overall vote-getters in each league.
In Phase 2, fans will then vote between the top-two finishers at each spot (and top six for the outfield) from the first round to decide the starters for the game.
What about other Blue Jays?
While many can criticize the voting totals for Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement has more than earned his big lead at second base.
The Ern Dog racking up 904,702 votes so far — more than triple the second-best second baseman, Ezequiel Duran of the Rangers.
In fact, Clement has the fourth-most votes of any AL player, trailing only Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge and Mike Trout.
Overall, the leading vote-getter is Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani with 1,165,133 while Alvarez is second at 1,015,768.
Clement has carried over his spectacular playoff surge into this season, posting a batting average of .304 through 71 games and leading the AL in doubles with 20 heading into Tuesday’s games.
Elsewhere, Andres Gimenez, George Springer and Alejandro Kirk currently sit second in voting at shortstop, DH and catcher, respectively, with Kirk a big surprise considering that he has played in just seven games this season due to a broken thumb.
The three players have little chance at catching the leaders at their positions as they trail by at least 400,000 votes each.
However, the race to keep an eye on is at third base, where the Jays’ Japanese rookie Kazuma Okamoto trails Rays’ Junior Caminero by just over 69,000 votes after the latest tally, making it one of the tightest races for a spot on the AL all-star team.