On Sunday, we found out who would be representing the American and National Leagues in the All-Star Game in Washington D.C. next week. You can find lists of all the starters and other selectees here and here.
Since then, a few players have dropped out due to injury as happens every year. Buster Posey, Mike Mikolas, and Gleyber Torres are all out, with Yadier Molina, Ross Stripling, and Jed Lowrie replacing them. But besides injury replacements, there were still two more players to be added at the last minute. MLB’s Final Vote allows fans to choose a final player from each league to go to the game, and teams really went all out to rally people to the ballot box.
But after all the pushing and the campaigning, Brock Holt as Andrew Benintendi’s campaign manager or Derek Holland and Hunter Pence going full WWE for Brandon Belt, the final players to sneak into the Midsummer Classic are Mariners middle infielder Jean Segura and Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar.
Both Milwaukee and Seattle have been some of the season’s nicest surprises, so it’s only fair that they each get another representative in the game. Segura is hitting .329/.356/.467 with a 130 OPS+ and 47 RBI. Defensively, he has a .966 fielding percentage. He got 13.6 million votes to win the AL honors, with Benintendi and Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton finishing second and third.
Aguilar, meanwhile, is putting up a line of .302/.369/.631 with a 161 OPS+, career highs across the board. He’s also sporting a .994 fielding percentage in 67 games at first base. Aguilar garnered a whopping 20.2 million votes to win the NL, with Belt finishing second.
.@JAguilarMKE received the good news from Manager Craig Counsell in a special pregame meeting with his teammates: pic.twitter.com/ZpahPKU5ol
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 12, 2018
This time, the fans got it right with their picks. These are both players who will add some fun and some talent to the game and deserve a spot in the lineup.