Red Sox players keep falling in American League All-Star voting

The chances of seeing a Red Sox player in the starting nine are not looking good.

With the All-Star break just a few weeks away, the starting roster for the American League is starting to take shape. Surprisingly, that list is light on Red Sox players.

The latest update was released on Monday and doesn’t feature a single Sox player in a starting position.

The only Red Sox players included in the list are Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, and Andrew Benintendi. Mookie Betts has the best shot to find himself in a starting position when the rosters are finalized but has a lot of ground to make up on the competition.

Aaron Judge and Mike Trout are locks to finish in first and second respectively, though the latter’s injury status raises questions about whether he’ll actually take part in the game or not. Should Trout miss it, Mookie would only need to move up to fourth place in voting to earn a starting spot. Sitting in sixth right now, he would need to make up more than 100,000 votes to pass Michael Brantley.

Further down the list, we find Andrew Benintendi who is 11th among AL outfielders with little chance of making the All-Star Game, let alone starting in it. There’s a chance he’ll be able to pass Lonnie Chisenhall and Brett Gardner down the stretch, but even then his best hope is finishing ninth.

Elsewhere, Xander Bogaerts is fourth among shortstops. He really has been good enough to warrant a starting spot this year, only the core of shortstops in the American League is stacked against him. At this point, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to pass Francisco Lindor or Carlos Correa. Dustin Pedroia’s in a similar situation, with little hope of making up the 2.5 million votes needed to pass Starlin Castro and Jose Altuve.

Starting at the All-Star Game isn’t much more than a point of pride, but it’s always nice to see your team’s best players recognized for their talent. If none of the position players are there to represent the Red Sox, at least we can be certain Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel will be.

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Since the game itself doesn’t determine home-field advantage in the World Series anymore, the players themselves probably aren’t too hung up about their status on the starting roster. The game has always been somewhat of an exhibition, and now the rules finally reflect that. The real competition is now among fan bases to show their support. So go out there and vote, vote, vote, to get Mookie Betts up the leaderboard.