Latest MLB All-Star update good for Cal, but not other Mariners

Jun 23, 2025, 11:05 AM

Editor, Seattle Sports

MLB released a new update on the All-Star Game voting Monday, and it’s great news for Cal Raleigh, but not for any of his Seattle Mariners teammates.

Donovan Solano’s resurgence helps Mariners in more ways than one

Raleigh, who leads all of baseball with 31 home runs and has set a number of pre-All-Star break homer records, remains the runaway leader to start for the American League at catcher in the game on July 15 at Atlanta’s Truist Park. The switch-hitting slugger has 1,901,389 votes, well ahead of Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk (757,659), who is second in the voting among AL catchers.

Just like is assumed with the MVP race, only Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (2,699,483) has more votes than Raleigh among AL players regardless of position.

Raleigh is pacing to be the first Mariners player to start an All-Star Game since designated hitter Nelson Cruz in 2015.

After Raleigh, though, the next Mariners player to show up on the board for overall votes is Julio Rodríguez, who is seventh among AL outfielders with 582,338. The top three vote-getters in the outfield right now are Judge, and the Detroit Tigers’ Riley Greene (1,370,098) and Javier Báez (901,969).

The real snub in all of this is J.P. Crawford, who is eighth in the AL shortstop race with 297,765 votes. Never mind that Crawford is third in the AL overall in on-base percentage (.407), and among AL shortstops ranks first in on-base, third in batting average (.291), third in wRC+ (142), third in bWAR (2.9), fourth in fWAR (2.3), and fourth in OPS (.805).

Should Crawford be leading the AL shortstop race? Probably not. The Athletics’ Jacob Wilson, Houston’s Jeremy Peña and Kansas City’s Bobby Witt all have great cases themselves. But Crawford should definitely be much higher than eighth.

A few other Mariners have at least 200,000 votes: outfielder Randy Arozarena (357,329), designated hitter Jorge Polanco (218,190), and second baseman Dylan Moore (215,659).

Phase 1 of the All-Star Game voting will continue through Thursday. Then on Monday, June 30, the top two players at every position plus the top six outfielders will advance to a new ballot, where the starters will ultimately be determined.

Fans can vote as many as five times every 24 hours here.

The All-Star starters will be revealed at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2 on ESPN, while the full rosters will be announced on ESPN at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 6. The 23 total pitchers and reserves for both the AL and NL will be determined by a combination of a player ballot and choices by the MLB commissioner’s office.

The Mariners (39-37) begin the middle series of a 10-day road trip Monday at 4:40 p.m. in Minnesota against the Twins (37-40). Radio coverage on Seattle Sports starts at 3:30 with the pregame show.