It isn’t just San Francisco Giants fans who are taking notice of the rise of outfielder Heliot Ramos. It’s other All-Star Game voters, too.
Ramos was ninth in the first release of voting results for the National League All-Star team on Monday. It may not sound like much, but it puts Ramos in position to move on to the second stage of voting — provided he gets some help.
Ramos is still a rookie and has only played 35 games this season, but his incredible start this year has allowed him to get 241,532 votes.
He’s batting .326/.404/.561/.965 with eight home runs and 30 RBI in those 35 games. He’s also stabilized the outfield after the loss of Jung Hoo Lee for the season. Recently, Ramos drew the praise of Gold Glove outfielder Torii Hunter, as he said that Ramos has become one of his “favorite players.”
The outfield position is wide open this year as two of the mainstays have moved to the infield — Philadelphia Phillies Bryce Harper and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts. For that reason it’s not out of the realm for Ramos to surge into the top six, which is where he needs to be to advance to the second phase of voting.
Phase one voting ends at noon eastern on June 27. Phase two voting starts on June 30.
The top six is occupied by the San Diego Padres’ Jurickson Profar (900,541), the Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich (821,037), the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. (798,609), the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández (761,934) and the Phillies duo of Brandon Marsh (521,461) and Nick Castellanos (439,764).
Ramos is roughly 200,000 votes behind Castellanos, so he’ll need some help.
But at least he’s in the running. Many of the other Giants on the ballot can’t say that.
First baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. is in seventh place at a position that Harper is leading with more than one million votes. Third baseman Matt Chapman is in eighth place, catcher Patrick Bailey is ninth in voting while second baseman Thairo Estrada is in 10th place.
The reserves and the pitching staff is selected after the starting lineups are set.
