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All-Star voting update features three Atlanta Braves leading at their position

By Steven Teal |
Colorado Rockies v Atlanta Braves
Colorado Rockies v Atlanta Braves / Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/GettyImages
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The Atlanta Braves are no stranger when it comes to sending players to the All-Star game each year. They always seem to possess some of the premiere talent in all of baseball year-to-year. 2023 has been no different so far as Atlanta is currently poised to send three position players to the Summer Classic.

Almost the entire Braves lineup is deserving of consideration for All-Star positions but there are a few players who stand out and it's nice to see that they are getting recognition from a lot of fans across the league. Let's see the vote leaders and how things have changed since the first vote update.

Braves leading at their position for the 2023 All-Star Game

Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy currently leads all NL catchers with 1,320,838 votes and looks like he is set to be an All-Star for the first time in his career. Now, if Murphy actually appears in the game or not, depends on the health of his hamstring that was recently injured. While he hasn't been placed in the IL yet, the Braves are going to want to be careful with their star catcher.

Murphy is putting up a career-best year behind the plate for the Braves and it's been fun to watch. He's batting .287/.385/.535 with a .919 OPS in 57 games played in 2023. He leads all Major League catchers with a 3.1 WAR and also carries a .416 xwOBA and wRC+ of 148. Sean also carries an OPS+ of 143 in that time frame as well.

He is on the right path to starting in the All-Star game and it seems fans would like to see him play. As mentioned above, that all depends on his health at the time of the game. Murphy was seen doing some on-field drills Tuesday afternoon so depending on the results from that, Murphy could avoid being placed on the IL.

Orlando Arcia

This may come as a shock to many fans because Orlando Arcia wasn't expected to be as good as he's been for the Braves. Replacing Dansby Swanson would be a tough task and many thought Vaughn Grissom would be the answer. Arcia absolutely blew past any expectations fans had for his performance.

The offensive output has been out of this world even after missing almost a month of time with a microfracture in his wrist. With the new vote update, he is leading to start the All-Star game and has double the votes of Francisco Lindor. Lindor has 508,168 votes whereas Arcia has 1,060,559 votes in first place.

This would be Arcia's first All-Star game selection in his career. He's having a career year and is batting .341/.398/.492 with a .890 OPS and OPS+ of 137. He also carries a 2.5 WAR for this season so far. He's not gone more than 2 games without a hit this season and just finds a way to get on base and is consistently coming through in the clutch.

I expect we will see Arcia take the field as the starting shortstop for the National League in July. He's been absolutely spectacular and baseball fans would love to get the opportunity to see him play on a National stage. He's certainly earned the chance to do so.

Ronald Acuna Jr.

No surprise here but Ronald Acuna Jr has accumulated the most votes by any player on the All-Star ballot and rightfully so. Acuna has received 2,201,468 votes which gives him almost a million more votes than Mookie Betts. The excitement around the Venezuelan native is warranted and he's having the best season we've ever seen from him.

Acuna hit the ground running and put the league on notice in 2023. He is batting .325/.403/.561 with a .964 OPS and OPS+ of 155. He carries a 3.4 WAR which is the second-best in all of baseball just behind Corbin Carroll. He also has the second-best average in baseball behind Luis Arraez and just ahead of Freddie Freeman, who has the third most votes in baseball for the All-Star game.

Acuna has stolen 30 bases so far this year and has 15 homers so it feels like a 30-30 year is definitely a lock at this point. Ronald is certainly on pace to blow right past 50 steals with how easily he's swiping bases in 2023. This is the most complete year Braves fans have seen from Acuna and the rest of the world wants to see that on display this summer.

Honorable Mentions

There are other Braves who are in the top five of their respective positions and deserve to be discussed. Matt Olson is second to Freddie Freeman in the NL first baseman voting but is about 1 million votes away from catching Freeman.

Ozzie Albies is in second position just behind Luis Arraez who is having a great season offensively for the Marlins. Arraez leads with 1,056,439 votes with Albies just behind him at 884,328. Early on in the season, I wouldn't have expected Albies to be considered for the All-Star Game. However, he has really started to play well as of late and it seems fans have taken notice.

Austin Riley is in second place in the voting for NL Third Baseman. Nolan Arenado is, expectedly, leading that category with just under a million votes with Riley trailing him by about 100,000 votes. Austin has struggled a bit at times but I could see a case for him being on the All-Star team.

Michael Harris II and Marcell Ozuna have both received votes to start in the outfield for the NL. Harris II sits in third with 493,282 votes and Ozuna sits ninth with 426,991 votes. I don't think anyone expected Ozuna to even be considered when the season began but he's turned things around so much that people are giving him consideration. Harris, similarly, started off the season a little rough but has turned things around recently.

Lastly, in the NL race for designated hitter, Travis d'Arnaud is in third place behind J.D. Martinez and Bryce Harper. d'Arnaud currently carries 568,343 just above Jorge Soler from Miami and Christopher Morel of the Cubs. d'Arnaud is deserving to be on the list with his continued offensive output for Atlanta but you could make a case for any of those 5 listed to start for the NL.

As seen above, the Braves are getting a lot of love when it comes to the 2023 All-Star Game. It's encouraging to see because it shows just how talented this Braves team is and other people have taken notice of that as well. We will see how things turn out in the end but things are looking promising so far for the Braves leading in their respective categories.

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