ANAHEIM, Calif. – Freddie Freeman and Brandon Phillips each ranked third at his position in fan voting for the National League All-Star team when the first updated results were announced Tuesday.
Matt Kemp was also sixth among NL outfielders in the update, giving the Braves far better representation than they’ve had in most recent seasons.
Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper led all NL players by a wide margin with 900,079 votes and teammate Daniel Murphy had the next-most votes with 669,643 to lead second baseman by a significant margin.
Freeman has been on the disabled list since fracturing his left wrist May 17 and expected to miss 8-10 weeks, which would keep him sidelined until at least late July and quite possibly August. The injury will prevent him from playing in the July 11 All-Star Game in Miami.
Before he was injurd, Freeman hit .343, led the National League in home runs (14) and ranked second in on-base percentage (.461) and slugging percentage (.748).
Freeman, an All-Star in 2013 and 2014, received 286,389 votes in the first fan-voting update, trailing first baseman Anthony Rizzo (452,620) of the Cubs and Ryan Zimmerman (359,055) of the Nationals.
Phillips, a 16-year veteran who’s in his first season with the Braves, had 126,404 votes to put him third among NL second basemen behind Murphy (669,643) and the Cubs’ Javier Baez (474,119). Phillips, who’ll turn 36 in June, was a three-time All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
Kemp got 284,420 votes to rank sixth among NL outfielders behind Harper, the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon (520,479), and a trio of Cubs: Jason Heyward (344,166), Ben Zobrist (327,231) and Kyle Schwarber (305,449).
Kemp, 32, was twice an All-Star with the Dodgers in 2011, when he was the NL MVP runner-up, and 2012.
The top five NL vote-getters were listed at each position except outfield, where 15 players were named since all outfielders are lumped together for voting rather than separated by right field, left field and center field. Fan voting will determine eight position-player starters in the National League, while 23 reserves and pitchers will be chosen via a combination of player-ballot choices and selection made by the commissioner’s office.
The final player on the 32-man roster for each All-Star squad will be chosen again this year by fans’ “Final Vote” balloting among five players who’ll be named after the rest of the All-Star teams are announced.
The first American League All-Star voting update will be announced Wednesday.
