Major League Baseball released the first batch of All-Star voting results on Monday afternoon and, amazingly, there is an Oriole among the leading vote-getters. It’s true. Ryan O’Hearn is the leader for American League designated hitters, leading Yankee DH Ben Rice by about 120,000 votes in the early days of balloting.
There is a very easy explanation for this surprise. The guy who has probably actually received the most votes as an American League designated hitter, Rafael Devers, was just traded from Boston to San Francisco. He won’t be an AL All-Star. His votes must have been discarded.