Rangers’ play keeps All-Star voters away

By David Mullen

The unofficial halfway point of the MLB season is marked by the arrival of the 2025 All-Star Game. Millions of fans are still voting online and rewarding representatives of a team off to a great start, individual players racking up extraordinary stat lines or simply their favorite players with a starting spot in the Midsummer Classic. The announcement of the final voting results is still a few days away, but this year’s AL and NL All-Star teams are coming into focus. 

For example, three Detroit Tigers are among the top players in fan voting at second base and in the outfield for the AL team. It appears that at least two position players — and probably pitcher Tarik Skubal — will be in the starting lineup. The upstart Tigers are in first place in the AL Central, are one of the feel-good stories of the baseball season, were the first team in MLB to win 50 games and deserve an oversized presence at the MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard at Truist Park in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 15.

As expected, immensely popular players like the New York Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge and Los Angeles Dodgers’ DH and starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani are the top vote-getters in the AL and NL. The two players are at the top of their game on successful teams and are posting remarkable numbers, making both players All-Star worthy.

But Judge and Ohtani also benefit from state media-like support from ESPN. The self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports” is a public relations volcano for Judge and Ohtani, spewing out nonstop highlights and creating “gee whiz” moments that elevate the two into idol status. I’m surprised LeBron James isn’t starting at first base given his position on ESPN’s media pedestal. 

The NL starters will likely be the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman at 1B, Arizona 2B Ketel Marte, San Diego’s Manny Machado at third, the Mets’ Francisco Lindor or LA’s Mookie Betts at shortstop, the Dodgers’ Will Smith at catcher and Ohtani at DH. The outfield will be Chicago Cubs’ human highlight reel Pete Crow-Armstrong and a combination of LA’s Teoscar Hernández, Chicago’s Kyle Tucker, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Mets’ Juan Soto.

Judge will be joined in the AL starting outfield by Detroit’s Riley Greene and either the Tigers’ Javier Báez or the Angels’ Mike Trout. It appears that the starting first baseman will be either Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Yankees’ Paul Goldschmidt. The Tigers’ Gleyber Torres will be at 2B, Cleveland’s José Ramírez at 3B, A’s rookie Jacob Wilson at shortstop, Seattle’s Cal  “The Big Dumper” Raleigh at catcher and Baltimore’s Ryan O’Hearn at DH.

Where are the Texas Rangers? 

The Rangers, coming off a World Championship in 2023, have been mediocre since their pennant run. Remember the team that won a record 11 consecutive road playoff games to win the World Series? Since dancing in the dome in Phoenix on November 1, 2023, after being crowned baseball’s champion, Texas has a road record of 50-72. No Ranger is in the top five in 2025 All-Star voting. Pitcher Jacob deGrom will probably be the Ranger’s lone representative in Atlanta, selected by the MLB Commissioner’s Office.

Typically, a recent World Champion team has many popular players that get All-Star votes based on name recognition. But not these Rangers. Among the many reasons, two stand out as why the Rangers will be so poorly represented at this year’s MLB All-Star Game.

Ranger fans are apathetic and not voting. The Texas faithful are treating All-Star voting like a local election, and Texans notoriously skip the polls. Like the Rangers offense so far, the fans are lacking initiative or a spark. But this is a national, actually worldwide election, and this is baseball’s All-Star game. 

While it tends to be a popularity contest, anyone can vote and there is no jerrymandering. Wilson of the Athletics is the leading AL vote getter at shortstop, and he is a rookie that doesn’t even have a city to call home. Fans have deemed this Rangers team unworthy of consideration.

No Rangers players are All-Stars. Corey Seager is one of baseball’s best players. But he has missed more than 30 games this season. Once an MVP candidate, 2B Marcus Semien is in a season long slump and has just seven HRs. Former All-Star catcher Jonah Heim has not returned to his 2023 level of play, and 3B Josh Jung is often hurt. Texas players with the best batting averages so far this season are utilityman Josh Smith and journeyman Sam Haggerty, and they are not All-Star caliber players.

The NFL, NBA and NHL All-Star celebrations are constantly being retooled and have become unwatchable. While the game’s outcome is meaningless, for one night, baseball fans get to praise the finest players in the game, hoping Machado, Raleigh, Judge, Ohtani or any other star player will provide a moment of glory for their hometown fans. When Julio Franco (1990), Alfonso Soriano (2024) and Michael Young (2006) won All-Star Game MVPs, they wore the Texas Rangers logo with pride.   

Representatives of the 2025 Texas Rangers will be nowhere to be found in Atlanta in mid-July. They have been voted off the diamond.