Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.
The second All-Star Ballot update just dropped. Here's where things stand entering the final week of Phase 1 voting.
If you haven't voted yet, get those ballots in now -- the first phase of All-Star voting ends this Thursday at noon ET. At the end of Phase 1, the top overall vote-getter in each league earns an automatic starting spot in this year's All-Star Game. As for everyone else, the top two players at each position (and the top six outfielders) move on to Phase 2 of the voting, where it's a head-to-head runoff to be named a 2026 All-Star starter.
A few races in particular have started to heat up since the first ballot update last week. These are the three biggest things that have changed in the All-Star standings:
1) There's a new No. 1 in the American League
Guess who's gotten the most All-Star votes of any AL player.
No, it's not Yordan Alvarez. Nope, it's not Aaron Judge either. It's Ernie Clement!
We're not pulling your leg. Clement is far from the biggest name on the AL ballot. But the Blue Jays' fan-favorite second baseman has taken over the top overall spot in the All-Star vote.
Clement has received 2,054,130 votes so far, making him the only American League player to break the 2 million mark. He's your leader in the clubhouse to earn the AL's automatic starting spot in the All-Star Game. (Shohei Ohtani is leading in the National League, and MLB overall, with 2,310,735 votes.) Clement would be a first-time All-Star.
Since the last ballot update, Clement has leapfrogged both Alvarez (1,974,459 votes), who was in the lead for the AL a week ago, and Judge (1,788,499 votes), who won the auto-start last year for the AL. He's also passed Mike Trout (1,735,051 votes) since last week.
2) Soto on the rise in the NL outfield
Juan Soto has jumped into the top 6 in the NL outfield voting, putting the Mets superstar in line to advance to Phase 2.
Soto was on the outside looking in at the last ballot update, when he was sitting in ninth place among NL outfielders. But now, with 947,033 votes, he's passed Corbin Carroll, James Wood and Jordan Walker to move into sixth place.
Soto is a four-time All-Star, but this would be his first All-Star Game with the Mets. He's batting .301 with an NL-best .973 OPS this season.
3) Arozarena joins J-Rod in the AL outfield top 6
Julio Rodríguez was the only Mariners outfielder in the AL's top six at the first All-Star Ballot update. But now his teammate Arozarena is right there with him.
Arozarena was in seventh place a week ago, with Rodríguez in sixth, but both Mariners outfielders have moved up a spot, putting them both in position to reach Phase 2 of the All-Star voting. Riley Greene, who was ahead of them, has dropped out of the top six, going from fifth to ninth.
Both Arozarena and Rodríguez were All-Stars last year for Seattle.
See the complete latest All-Star standings here >>
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