Monday marked the beginning of Phase 2 of All-Star voting after the opening phase closed late last week. Kansas City Royals fans will rejoice that Bobby Witt Jr. looks on the verge of finally breaking through with voters and claiming his spot as the American League’s starting shortstop. However, the overarching storyline that stole the show of Phase 1 was how many Toronto Blue Jays reached were named voting finalists thanks to a wave of Canadian voters taking over.
Alongside Ernie Clement earning outright All-Star status after leading the entire AL in voting the Blue Jays featured a finalist at every other position. This in turn has much of the baseball world up in arms over the voting frenzy which has seen many deserving names snubbed of finalist opportunities with their fate now left in the hands of the reserve selection committee – including some prominent Royals names.
However, as irate as some might be, Royals fans can’t get too upset over the Blue Jays’ strong representation among voting finalists. After all, it was just over a decade ago in the heart of their World Series era that they took over All-Star voting.
In 2015, after coming ever so close to achieving World Series glory the season before they actually did (similar to what the Blue Jays have done this season), Royals voters stuffed the ballot boxes with four starters in Salvador Perez, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon with others like Omar Infante coming oh so close themselves.
And back in 2015, All-Star voting included a vote for the final roster spot where, you guessed it, the Royals reigned supreme with third baseman Mike Moustakas claiming it.
Now, the Royals may’ve had more of a case for such strong voter turnout, as while both them and the 2026 Blue Jays are both coming off World Series appearances, those Royals were far more competitive than Toronto currently is. Kansas City went on to the win the AL Central this season, while as it stands the 2026 Blue Jays sit six games under .500 and 2.5 games out of the third and final wild card spot.
Royals fans can’t dwell on the past and must focus on Bobby Witt Jr. in Phase 2
As the saying goes, there’s no point in crying over spilled milk. The Blue Jays names are there and there’s no going back, whether they’re deserving of it or not. So, now Royals fans must turn their focus to their lone finalist in Witt.
Thankfully things look very promising for the shortstop extraordinaire after almost one million votes higher than Andrés Giménez in second. And his return to his MVP-caliber season after brief injury with an MCL sprain will only help his odds in the eyes of voters.
What will also help is the fact that now not all teams are represented in voting, meaning there are likely more than just Royals fans rooting for Witt, meaning the vote will not be as diluted as in Phase 1.
Fans will have until Thursday, July 2 at noon ET to cast their votes for Witt, before the second phase closes and All-Star rosters are announced ahead of the July 14 showcase in Philadelphia.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
