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.
Ronald Acuña Jr. leads the majors in hits with 110+ mph exit velocity.@PeterMoylan showcases the resulting artwork 🎨 pic.twitter.com/YryWXisd0v
— Bally Sports South (@BallySportsSO) June 11, 2023
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.