Remembering When Royals Fans Broke MLB All-Star Voting

This season, the Toronto Blue Jays fans have taken over the American League All-Star voting. After the first round of votes, Blue Jays players occupy a spot in each position’s phase 2 vote, with second baseman Ernie Clement earning an automatic spot in the starting lineup for receiving the most phase 1 votes in the American League.

This is not the first time MLB has seen fans of one team stuff the ballot box for their favorite team. In 2015, Royals fans voted early and often to get their players on the All-Star roster. While Toronto and Kansas City have different media market sizes (Toronto's nationwide fan base gives it one of the largest voting pools), the teams' profiles are quite similar. Much like this year’s Blue Jays, the 2015 Royals were coming off a close seven-game World Series loss while trying to overcome lengthy playoff droughts; 30 years for the Royals at the time and 33 years for the Blue Jays. 

One key difference is that the Royals were 14 games above .500 and leading their division at the end of June 2015, and finished the season with the best record in the AL. Conversely, the Blue Jays are finishing June six games below .500 and outside of the playoff picture.

In 2015, the All-Star voting was simpler. Whichever player got the most votes at their position was the starter in the All-Star game. No phases and unlimited votes per person. The excessive ballot stuffing by Royals fans ultimately led MLB to change the voting process to include two phases to help prevent one team from dominating the outcome.

Below are the AL vote results in phase 2 as of 12:30 pm on June 30, including the number of days left to vote. While only one Blue Jay is leading in the final phase of voting, all positions are represented with a Blue Jays player in phase two.

With voting wrapping up at Thursday at 12 pm ET, let's check in on Phase 2 of All-Star voting for the American League!

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The final results in 2015 looked very similar with Royals occupying the top two spots in all positions (top 6 for outfield) At one point during the voting, eight of the nine starting positions were occupied by Royals players, but ultimately four players ended up holding on to their leads: Salvador Perez at catcher, Alcides Escobar at shortstop, and Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon in the outfield. 

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Relievers Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera were also selected to the All-Star team, and Mike Moustakas won the vote for the final roster spot.

How deserving was each Royal in battling for their All-Star spot?

Below is an initial look at key stats to see how the top vote getters compared to each other. This is not a perfect method to determine who is more “deserving” since the All-Star Game was never intended to reward only the statistically best players. Fan voting has always been as much about popularity as production. 

All stats used will be from the start of 2015 through July 5, the day voting results were announced.

Catcher

Salvador Perez ultimately won the vote at catcher, his third all-star selection at the time. Perez was battling with Russell Martin and Stephen Vogt. According to Fangraphs, Perez was the least productive of the three. Among AL catchers with at least 100 plate appearances, Perez ranked 11th in fWAR, 9th in wOBA, and 8th in wRC+. Martin and Vogt were top two in each of those metrics.

First Base

Eric Hosmer lost out to Miguel Cabrera, who was fresh off two consecutive AL MVPs, and was clearly more deserving, not to say Hosmer wasn’t having a good year at the time.

Second Base

Omar Infante was not having a good season in 2015 despite his second-place finish in votes. He ultimately became the poster child while ballot stuffing was a problem in 2015. He was the worst performer among qualified AL second basemen. Winner Jose Altuve was a much better option from the young and upcoming Astros, with Jason Kipnis also having a strong season. The Royals notably traded for Ben Zobrist later that season to replace Infante at second base.

Third Base

Moustakas was having a strong season in 2015 and was deserving of his selection to the All-Star reserves, but Josh Donaldson, the eventual AL MVP, had a stronger case for votes.

Shortstop

Escobar ultimately held on to the starting spot, and the decision between him and Jose Iglesias was close based on fWAR.

Outfield

Mike Trout joined Cain and Gordon as the voted starters. Trout and Cain would both finish the season in the top three of MVP voting. Gordon was also having a strong season, though other players may have had a stronger case for selection. Alex Rios, on the other hand, was not having a good season in Kansas City; he ranked third-worst among all outfielders in fWAR at the time with -0.7.

Designated Hitter

Kendrys Morales was brought in to replace long-time Royal Billy Butler and was a key bat in the middle of the order in 2015. While he ultimately lost out to Nelson Cruz in the All-Star voting, his performance in 2015 earned him a Silver Slugger as DH.

Despite MLB’s attempts to prevent ballot stuffing for All-Star voting, fans will still find a way to show their enthusiasm for their favorite team, even when some of the players are less deserving. 

While the All-Star Game is a meaningless exhibition that has always been a popularity contest, All-Star appearances can have an impact on player bonuses, impact on arbitration and free agent contracts, and possibly future Hall of Fame voting. Ultimately, the starters for the All-Star game are a representation of the league as a whole, and fans will want to make sure players are deserving of that honor.