9 overlooked players who deserve more All-Star love

*Read our story on the balloting format, which includes two phases of fan voting to determine the All-Star starters.*

The first round of balloting results for the 2024 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard are out, and, as usual, you fans are doing a pretty solid job. All of the names you’d expect to see leading are leading (Shohei, Betts, Harper, Judge), and you’ve even picked up on some of the lesser-known names who have been fantastic so far (Jurickson Profar, Alec Bohm). The All-Star Game is for the fans, so of course you get to choose whoever you want, but it’s always nice to be reminded that baseball has really smart fans!

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Still, though: I have a few notes. More to the point, there are some players who are having pretty terrific years so far whom you might be overlooking a bit. Voting is still open for a while, so think of this as a little tipsheet to consider some players who might have been overlooked.

Here are nine players who have been excellent so far who didn’t make the top five at their respective positions (or 15 for outfielders) … but hopefully will next time around. (Note: Monday’s results were limited to the top 10 vote-getters by position, and top 20 for outfielders.)

Carlos Correa, Twins (AL SS)
Current standing: 10th

Correa is actually a former starter – he won the balloting way back in 2017, when he was only 22 years old – but he has gone through a difficult few years, mostly because of injuries. And there’s no question that shortstop is the most stacked position on the AL side of the ballot, featuring multiple MVP candidates. That said: Correa might be having the best year of his career? He’s on a tear right now, having raised his average above .300, and he’s third among AL shortstops in OPS, behind only Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. (And he’s rapidly gaining on both of them.) Plus, c’mon, he’s dressing up like Prince in the dugout after homers, what more do you want of a guy?

Riley Greene, Tigers (AL OF)
Current standing: Outside top 20

It’s easy to lose track of Greene out in Detroit, on a team that has made strides this season but is still in fourth place in an improved division. (And has drawn more attention for its pitching anyway.) But Greene may be making his superstar leap. On Saturday, he was 4-for-5 with six RBIs, bringing his OPS all the way up to .824 on the year. If that doesn’t seem that high to you, we’ll point out that no Tigers player has posted a full-season OPS over .824 since Nick Castellanos in 2018. (Miguel Cabrera’s last such season was 2016.) Greene is only 23 years old, and he has plenty of All-Star Games in his future. But having him outside the top 20 now, behind even Mike Trout, who hasn’t played since April and won’t be back for this game, seems shortsighted.

Logan O'Hoppe, Angels / Ryan Jeffers, Twins (AL C)
Current standing: O’Hoppe 9th / Jeffers outside top 10

If shortstop is the most loaded position in the AL, catcher is close. The Orioles’ Adley Rutschman and the Royals’ Salvador Perez are a totally justified top two: They’re the leaders of two of the best teams in the league. No complaints there. But O’Hoppe and Jeffers have been among the best hitters in the league this year. O’Hoppe has carried the Angels’ offense with Trout out – he just hit a 467-foot homer this weekend – and Jeffers has been one of the few constants outside of Correa for a continuously reshuffling Twins offense. (To be fair, Jeffers has played DH a lot, but he’s listed as a catcher on the ballot.) O’Hoppe is only three points behind Rutschman in OPS and is two years younger. He should be in the top five, and maybe the top two.

Brent Rooker, A’s (AL DH)
Current standing: 7th

It’s fair, one supposes, if you’ve paid less attention to the A’s this year than some other teams, but Rooker deserves your notice. He broke through last year, when he hit 30 homers and notched an .817 OPS, and it ended up getting him the A’s lone All-Star nod. But he has been even better this year, putting up an .843 OPS and hitting 13 homers in only 59 games. He has an OPS nearly 70 points higher, for example, than Giancarlo Stanton, who is in second place in the voting. Yordan Alvarez is the clear-cut No. 1 for good reason, but Rooker keeps getting better and better. And we may end up seeing him as the A’s rep yet again this year.

Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies (NL SS)
Current standing: 10th

Look, the answer here is obviously Vote Betts, even in the wake of Mookie’s injury: Heck, seeing him hurt actually makes me want to vote for him more. But it must be said that the 22-year-old Rockies shortstop is having a breakthrough season. After a middling April, Tovar has been on a tear for two months now, putting up an .864 OPS in May and .814 in June. And don’t give us any of that “oh, Coors Field” business: He has an .811 OPS at home and an .808 OPS on the road for the season, and nine of his 11 homers have come away from Coors Field. The fact is, Tovar is a future star in this league, and while most people haven’t caught up with that fact yet, this is your opportunity to do so. Elly De La Cruz gets much of the love and hype among non-Betts NL shortstops. But so far, Tovar, who is only four months older than De La Cruz, has been considerably better.

Jazz Chisholm Jr., Marlins / Bryan Reynolds, Pirates / Jesse Winker, Nationals (NL OF)
Current standing: All outside the top 20

If we’re picking outfield omissions from the crowded (and pretty confusing) NL outfield, we might as well pick a trio that didn’t make the top 20. These three are all among the NL outfielders with the highest OPS: Reynolds and Winker are actually tied for fourth at .768, and Chisholm Jr. – who has been on the cover of a video game, for crying out loud – is right behind them at .762. Sure: The NL outfield ballot is bizarrely thin this year. But if three of the six best hitters didn’t even make the top 15, it should probably be noted.

On the whole, though: Great job with the voting, fans! You get better at this every year.