Francisco Alvarez Enters All-Star Ballot, Harrison Bader Falls Off
Similar to last week’s results, this Monday’s updated All-Star ballots included five Mets across the board. Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and J.D. Martinez all stood pat, while Francisco Alvarez entered the fold and Harrison Bader fell off. Starling Marte also fell two spots but remained in the top 20 outfielders.
Alonso is the highest-ranked Met at any position. He sits in fourth place among first basemen with 273,369 votes. The top seven first basemen were unchanged since last week, with Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman leading the way. Harper has more than two million votes, while Freeman has over a million. Narrowly ahead of Alonso is the Braves’ Matt Olson (309,079), despite a moderate .744 OPS from the slugger this season.
Alonso certainly hasn’t had his best campaign either, and it’s an important year for him with free agency looming this offseason. He still owns a solid .793 OPS, but that’s in line to be the lowest mark of his career.
Lindor and Martinez both stayed in seventh place on the shortstop and DH lists, respectively.
Lindor has really come alive lately after a brutal start to the season offensively, hitting .276 with an .875 OPS in the month of June. His 3.0 fWAR ranks seventh among MLB shortstops this season. With 222,414 votes, he trails sixth-place Ha-Seong Kim by only a little more than 1,000. Mookie Betts and Trea Turner lead the way.
Martinez, meanwhile, had a delayed start to his Mets career due to injury. But the veteran DH has settled in nicely and become one of the Mets’ most valuable offensive pieces. In 36 games, he’s hit .290 with an .870 OPS and a 150 wRC+. Martinez is about 30,000 votes behind sixth-place Joc Pederson. At the top, expectedly, is Shohei Ohtani, with Marcell Ozuna in second.
The biggest difference for the Mets in this week’s ballot is that it includes Alvarez, who snuck his way into 10th place among National League catchers. He has 135,063 votes. Alvarez missed nearly two months due to injury, but he’s hitting .361 with a 1.036 OPS in 12 games since his return. In 28 games overall, he owns a 133 wRC+. The biggest detractor on his season is the sample size, with still fewer than 100 plate appearances, but his recent surge has at least gotten him some recognition.
William Contreras and J.T. Realmuto are the top two catchers with the most votes.
Over in the outfield — which lists 20 rather than 10 — Marte slipped from No. 16 to No. 18 since last week. He still sits ahead of Corbin Carroll and Jackson Chourio. He’s had a fine if unspectacular season, with a 116 wRC+ and 0.6 fWAR. His bat has rebounded from last year’s 76 wRC+, but his defense at 35 years old is nowhere near what it used to be.
Bader, who’s much more of a defense-first player, fell out of the top 20 after placing exactly 20th last week. The center fielder has come up with some clutch hits for the Mets, though his OBP is still just .316. His 1.1 fWAR actually ranks fifth on the team, however — behind only Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Martinez and Alonso.
Speaking of Nimmo, he’s nowhere to be found on this list despite a 131 wRC+ and 2.2 fWAR.
The top six outfielders on the list, in order, are Jurickson Profar, Christian Yelich, Teoscar Hernández, Fernando Tatis Jr., Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos.
Phase 1 of voting is set to end this week, with the top two at each position (and top six outfielders) being revealed on Thursday on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET. Those players will advance to the second phase of voting. The singular player with the most votes in each league will receive an automatic starting spot in the All-Star Game. Phase 2 voting is scheduled to take place from June 30 to July 3.
The way the numbers look, it’ll be pretty much impossible for any Met to advance to Phase 2. However, as always, each MLB team is guaranteed at least one All-Star representative.
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