Texas Rangers: 1 positive, 1 negative from first All-Star balloting results

The first phase of fan balloting ahead of the 2021 All-Star Game at Coors Field has closed, with the Texas Rangers garnering mixed results.

It should be well-known by now that this team won’t have many representatives in Denver come July given their overall struggles and lack of “star power”.

Still, every team is required to have at least one representative at the mid-summer classic, and the Rangers do have some underrated (and quite worthy) candidates to don the American League uniform in Colorado.

Positive

Starting with the positive from the first wave of results: Adolis Garcia is fourth in the voting for the American League outfielders, notching seven percent of the vote in the early going. Assuming he keeps up this pace in the voting, El Bombi’s return trip to Coors Field should be all but secured, even if he won’t necessarily be a starter.

Texas Rangers fans should continue to vote for Garcia to ensure this fact, but a positive development from the first wave of fan voting nonetheless!

Mixed results for some Texas Rangers players after the first phase of fan voting ahead of the 2021 All-Star Game.

Negative

Unfortunately, with the positives come the negatives. Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a very worthy All-Star candidate in 2021, hasn’t even cracked the top-10 in voting at his position in the American League, placing 11th to be exact.

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The top three vote-getters in the AL at shortstop are relatively obvious in Xander Bogaerts, Bo Bichette and Tim Anderson. All three of those players are bona fide stars at the position and deserve to be where they are.

Things get murky after Anderson’s rank in the voting, however. Astros’ SS Carlos Correa is fourth in the voting (yuck), followed by the Royals’ Adalberto Mondesi.

Adalberto Mondesi, the same shortstop who has played all of seven games in 2021, cobbling together just 25 at-bats in those seven games and has endured two separate stints on the Injured List. And yet somehow, he’s ranked FIFTH in AL shortstop All-Star voting? Blasphemy.

What a joke is right.

IKF, for comparison, leads all shortstops in hits (78) and steals (15), is third in batting average (.294) and fourth in RBIs (26), in addition to his Gold Glove-caliber defense.

The 26-year-old is no stranger to disrespect, having been spited by FanGraphs prior to the season. But to be an afterthought to this degree, to place behind an injured Adalberto Mondesi in All-Star voting, seems outrageous.

Rangers fans can vote for IKF at this link, and be sure to do so as many times as possible.