8 All-Star voting droughts that could be ending

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

Finalists to start the 2024 MLB All-Star Game are now set, after Phase 1 voting wrapped up on Thursday. When Phase 2 voting gets underway on Sunday, it will mean opportunities for some teams and fanbases to end significant droughts.

Responsibility for voting in the starting All-Star position players permanently returned to the fans in 1970, and in that time, certain teams have dominated certain positions. Others have endured long stretches without a representative.

Below is a look at the eight finalists looking to stop dry spells of more than 20 years. (Excluding DH, which has a limited fan voting history.) Each player is listed along with the most recent player to win the fan vote for that team at that position.

Note: These droughts only consider the results of fan voting, which don't always match the actual All-Star Game starters due to injury replacements.

Luis Arraez, Padres (NL 2B)
Last: None

Being in this position is nothing new for Arraez, who won the fan vote as the NL second baseman just last year, with the Marlins. (He also made the 2022 AL All-Star team as a reserve, while playing for the Twins.) But for the Padres? That’s a different story.

Of course, it’s not just second base. Between 2000 and 2020 (when there was no All-Star Game), San Diego did not have a single player voted into the starting lineup for the Midsummer Classic at any position. Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. finally broke that up in 2021, and third baseman Manny Machado followed him in ‘22.

But second base remains a blank spot, not just recently but throughout franchise history, which dates back to 1969. While the Padres are the only team this season with a chance to get their first voting winner at a particular position, exactly half of MLB clubs have at least one spot missing on their bingo card.

William Contreras, Brewers (NL C)
Last: Ted Simmons (1983)

There is a caveat here, which is that Milwaukee’s Jonathan Lucroy did start the 2014 All-Star Game behind the plate. However, that was only because fan vote winner Yadier Molina of the Cardinals was unable to play due to injury.

It’s been more than 40 years since the Brew Crew actually had a catcher voted in to start the game. Simmons, who would go on to make the Hall of Fame in 2020, had also won the NL catcher spot with St. Louis in 1979, before being part of a trade to Milwaukee following the 1980 season. Speaking of Brewers-Cardinals catcher connections, William’s older brother Willson was set to perhaps challenge William for this spot, but a left arm fracture cost him 40 games, scuttling that potential sibling rivalry.

J.T. Realmuto, Phillies (NL C)
Last: Darren Daulton (1993)

Contreras isn’t the only NL catcher finalist with a shot to end a long drought for his team. However, Realmuto’s candidacy is complicated by the fact that he underwent right knee surgery earlier this month and is expected to be out of action until close to, if not after, the All-Star break.

Should Phillies fans manage to push Realmuto over the top anyway, it would be the first career fan vote victory for the three-time All-Star, who did start the 2021 All-Star Game for the NL when the fan-elected Buster Posey had to drop out due to injury.

Bryce Harper, Phillies (NL 1B)
Last: John Kruk (1993)

The 1993 season was a special one for the Phillies, who won 97 games and the NL pennant, and they put three players in the NL All-Star lineup that year: Daulton, Kruk and pitcher Terry Mulholland. It could be a similar situation for the Phillies in 2024, as the club entered Friday with MLB’s best record. Meanwhile, Philly boasts the NL’s overall vote leader in Harper (earning him a guaranteed starting spot), as well as six other finalists and multiple pitchers with strong arguments to start on the mound.

One potential hiccup: health. With Realmuto already on the injured list, both Harper and DH finalist Kyle Schwarber exited the Phillies’ loss to the Marlins on Thursday with injuries, then were placed on the IL on Friday. It’s unclear, at present, if one or both will be unavailable for the Midsummer Classic.

Regardless, Harper already is locked in as the Phillies’ first fan vote winner at first base since Kruk (now a Phillies broadcaster) 31 years ago, after pacing all NL candidates with 3,277,920 total votes in Phase 1.

Jurickson Profar and Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres (NL OF)
Last: Tony Gwynn (1999)

As previously noted, San Diego's recent history of All-Star starters is minimal, but that was not the case in the 1980s and ‘90s. Gwynn was a big reason for that, winning the fan vote 11 times during those decades. (The only outfielder with more since 1970? Barry Bonds with 12.)

This season, though, the Padres boast two of the six NL outfield finalists. Tatis, unfortunately, is on the IL with a stress reaction in his right leg that likely will keep him out through the All-Star Game, just three years after he was the NL’s starting shortstop in the event.

Profar, on the other hand, is healthy and putting together a monster season for San Diego, which combined with a relatively shaky NL outfield group, netted him the eighth-highest vote total for any player in Phase 1. Profar could become a rare example of a player with at least 11 seasons of big league experience before making his first career All-Star team as a starter.

Steven Kwan, Guardians (AL OF)
Last: Juan Gonzalez (2001)

Cleveland is another club without much recent history of All-Star fan voting winners. After enjoying a wave of 14 fan-elected starters during the franchise’s 1995-2001 glory years, its only winners since have been third baseman José Ramírez (2017-18) and first baseman Carlos Santana (2019).

Now, with Cleveland off to a fantastic start in 2024, Ramírez is once again a finalist at the hot corner. Then there is Kwan, who has spent some time on the IL but also flirted with a .400 batting average while showing a surprising boost in power. Kwan is going to have his work cut out for him to claim one of the final two AL outfield spots behind overall leading vote-getter Aaron Judge, with Juan Soto, Anthony Santander and Kyle Tucker also finalists. If he can do it, he’d end a 22-season drought stretching back to Gonzalez, the two-time AL MVP who signed with Cleveland before the 2001 season, then proceeded to produce a 1.031 OPS and 83 RBIs before the All-Star break.

Trea Turner, Phillies (NL SS)
Last: Jimmy Rollins (2002)

Here are those Phillies again. Turner previously won the fan vote as the NL’s starting shortstop in 2022, when he was with the Dodgers. He signed with Philly after that season, eventually clearing the way for Mookie Betts to take over as the starting shortstop in L.A. this season. Now those two former teammates are co-finalists, but with Betts out through the All-Star break due to a left hand fracture, Turner’s path could be cleared.

While Turner himself missed 38 games on the IL earlier this season, he returned on June 17 and has been productive since then, carrying a .333/.385/.458 overall batting line into Friday’s action. Surprisingly, Rollins’ one time winning the fan vote came not in 2007, when he went on to be named NL MVP, but in 2002, when he hit .245 with a .686 OPS in his second full MLB season.