The New York Yankees may not be playing their best baseball, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have representation in the upcoming 2021 All-Star Game. Second baseman DJ LeMahieu and right fielder Aaron Judge were announced among the All-Star Ballot finalists for the game. MLB Network made the revelation on Sunday.
Catcher Gary Sanchez, who has turned his season around with the Yankees in the month of June, was a notable omission from the All-Star finalists.
Per MLB.com, the top three vote-getters at each position (top nine in the case of outfielders) will now advance to the second phase of voting to determine the starters for the All-Star game.
The midsummer classic will be played in Colorado, at Coors Field, on July 13.
LeMahieu, who hasn’t had his best season, will compete with Toronto Blue Jays’ Marcus Semien and the Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve to be the starter.
LeMahieu hasn’t had his best season this year with the Yankees, hitting .271/.345/.377 with seven home runs and 29 RBIs in 72 games, but has turned things around in the last three weeks. He actually leads the Yankees in hits with 79.
Yankees’ Judge has been a bright spot this year
On the other hand, Judge is joined by the Angels’ Mike Trout, the Twins’ Byron Buxton, the Astros’ Michael Brantley, the Rangers’ Adolis GarcÃa, the Blue Jays’ Teoscar Hernández and Randal Grichuk, the Orioles’ Cedric Mullins and Alex Verdugo of the Red Sox. Three of them will have the privilege to start.
Before Sunday’s game, Judge was .285/.382/.506 with 16 home runs and 38 RBIs in 72 games. He leads the Yankees in runs (42), homers, RBIs, total bases (133) and all three triple-slash categories, per the league’s site.
The second phase of the All-Star voting will start on Monday at noon and will end on Thursday at 2 p.m. Per MLB.com’s information, fans will be able to submit one ballot on MLB platforms and can submit up to 17 unique player votes during that 74-hour voting period