Samuel Basallo of the Baltimore Orioles celebrate after driving in the game winning run in the eleventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates
Earlier this week, All-Star voting for the 2026 season opened up. Over the next several weeks, fans will have the opportunity to make their choices for the starting lineups for the American and National League teams for this year’s edition of the game, taking place in Philadelphia to coincide with various celebrations for the 250th birthday of the United States of America.
It is, of course, a sacred duty for Orioles fans to vote for all Orioles, going back to the days of when these things were actual punch card ballots that got handed out by ushers in the stadiums. All those Yankees fans and Red Sox fans and whoever else would be voting in their assorted jabronis, so you better try to counter their ballot stuffing.
The punch cards have been gone for quite some time in favor of less-charming digital ballots. This year’s ballot is sponsored by a video game company known for giving the gaming world the ultimate cheat code: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. Mike Elias puts in that code and he thinks he’s going to get his choice of waiver wire relievers and one-year contract starting pitchers. It probably won’t help him beat Contra and it hasn’t been great for the AL East lately either.
There have been fun years in recent memory where there was a deserving Oriole at a great number of positions and you didn’t have to be a ridiculous homer to vote for mostly or entirely Orioles ballots. Last year wasn’t one of those years. This year is also not looking like one. Even if several players go on a tear between now and the end of the voting period, people’s minds are largely made up before voting begins. Below is an attempt to carefully consider the case for each Oriole at each position and how they stack up to the competition.
The Oriole: Samuel Basallo
Should you vote for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Probably
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Probably
There’s a Yordan Alvarez-sized problem for Basallo getting in as the starter in the American League. The Astros nearly-full-time designated hitter is, going into Thursday’s games, the best hitter so far in all of MLB, dropping a 1.075 OPS on the league. He’s hit 21 home runs already.
Even so, we can all be excited about what Basallo has done so far this season, particularly the way he rebounded after a tough first few weeks of the season to become one of the better young hitters out there. It’s nice that the Orioles have finally noticed and are lately playing him nearly every day, even against lefties. And he definitely deserves to be a reserve over just about anybody else you could name among AL designated hitters.
The Oriole: Pete Alonso
Should you vote for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Unfortunately, yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Unfortunately, yes
Based on reports, the Orioles actually attempted to sign Kyle Schwarber the day before they signed Pete Alonso, but (this is my speculation) Schwarber just used the Orioles to drive up the price to return to the Phillies. I mention this because Schwarber has 23 home runs and Alonso so far only has 12. That’s not going to get anybody into the All-Star Game or probably even back into the Home Run Derby. As of this writing, Alonso is 8th in fWAR among primary first basemen, trailing people like Munetaka Murakami and Jonathan Aranda.
There were a lot of intangibles that the Orioles hoped they were getting in signing Alonso and it seems like they are getting those with veteran leadership and all that jazz. Some more tangibles would be nice too. There are four more years to get Alonso into the All-Star Game as an Oriole. People other than me might find this thought reassuring.
The Oriole: Jeremiah Jackson
Should you vote for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
Jackson was a fun story last year after arriving with little fanfare and having a good month of August. That feels very far away now. After a fantastic March/April where he had six home runs and drove in 24 runs, Jackson hasn’t homered yet in May or June and he’s OPSing under .500 since April turned to May. It’s too bad, because there’s not an overwhelming AL favorite here; it’s close between four guys, currently led in fWAR by Texas‘s Ezequiel Duran. Maybe next year, Jackson Holliday can be a guy who deserves support.
The Oriole: Coby Mayo
Should you vote for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
The last 28 days split for Coby Mayo is .281/.359/.526. That might get him in the conversation for being a starter if he’d been doing that for the whole season. However, he had an OPS under .500 as recently as May 9. That’s not going to do it, particularly against a field that includes seven-time All-Star/likely future Hall of Famer José Ramírez. Might still be a good time to buy some Mayo stock anyway.
The Oriole: Gunnar Henderson
Should you vote for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Yes
Even in the month of April, when he hit nine home runs, Henderson still didn’t manage to get his OBP over .300 or his SLG over .500. He’s only hit four home runs since and he isn’t hitting for average or getting on base while not hitting the homers either. I’m bummed about him, friends. This is the shortest entry because I don’t want to say any more.
The Oriole: Adley Rutschman
Should you vote for him: Yes
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Mostly
Are you a total homer for voting for him? Mostly
One aspect of being a sports fan is veering continually between “It is so over” and “We are SO back.” This dynamic may be exemplified most clearly by Rutschman, about whom my Camden Chat colleague Stacey and I are always asking, “Is Adley back?” And the thing is that, often, he is back. But the reason that he’s back is because he went away for a while and that kind of sucks. His most recent status is “not back,” refreshing the cycle yet again while probably not winning him very many neutral votes.
The Orioles: Leody Taveras, Dylan Beavers, Taylor Ward
Should you vote for them? Yes, yes, and yes
Are you a total homer for voting for them? Yes, yes, and yes
Should you vote for them? Yes, yes, and yes
Are you a total homer for voting for them? Yes, yes, and yes
Confession: If Tyler O’Neill was listed here, I was going to break from the bit and say no, you should not vote for him. The Orioles have saved me that trouble by not even listing him. It is, actually, pretty sad that Beavers, who’s been on the IL for a month, gets a spot here over either O’Neill or Colton Cowser. That’s the way the season’s gone for those other guys. A guy I follow on Bluesky called The Dishwasher has lately pointed out this remarkable fact: O’Neill has batted 27 times in the first two innings of a game this year and he has zero hits in that time. Sheesh.
Taveras carried the Orioles offense, such as it was, through roughly their first 25 games and since that time has returned to hitting like Leody Taveras. This is not complimentary. Other outfielders are bad enough at hitting lately and Taveras is okay enough defensively to still make it worth playing him, but come on, it’s a tough field for the outfield, led by Mike Trout, who may actually be back. That’s a fun story.
Then there’s Taylor Ward. First impressions stick in the mind and my first impression of him was that Opening Day play where he misread a carom about as badly as you can do. He has continued to play poor defense in the field, worse than I think even the Orioles could have reasonably expected based on Ward’s career to date. He had not hit the dingers that we had all expected, instead carving out a strange new niche as a “gets on base a lot and hits a bunch of doubles” guy that has some value, if not quite the value the Orioles were expecting. Grayson Rodriguez has a 10 ERA after four starts with the Angels.
Fans don’t vote for pitchers, either starting pitchers or relievers. That stuff all gets sorted out behind the scenes while trying to juggle between actually deserving players and making sure that at least one player from each team is able to be named to an All-Star roster. We certainly shouldn’t expect any Orioles starting pitchers to make the cut. Although some are trending better lately, that’s going to be no competition against guys who’ve been getting it done all year.
Since the above was largely a bummer, I do want to shout out the one guy on the Orioles who probably deserves to make an All-Star roster, and if things are more or less the same in about a month as they are right now, he probably will be the only Orioles All-Star this year. That’s Rico Garcia. He went 11 straight outings to start the year without allowing a hit and even now, batters are hitting just .083/.172/.155 against him for the season. That’s a 0.68 ERA and 0.608 WHIP. Good stuff.
It won’t be great if Garcia is the only Orioles All-Star. Hopefully June and onward go better for the team, such that by season’s end it looks silly that they only had one All-Star.
