Phillies fans’ hard work in MLB All-Star voting comes with a Bryce Harper injustice

Phillies fans deserve a lot of credit for staying on top of things and pushing several of their team’s players to the forefront of MLB All-Star voting for next month’s Midsummer Classic at Citizens Bank Park.

Most notably, Brandon Marsh surprisingly (but very deservingly) netted over two million votes in the first round of selection, putting him second among NL outfielders and giving him a great chance to start the game. Joining him with a chance to start for the Senior Circuit are second baseman Bryson Stott and third baseman Alec Bohm, both of whom finished in second place at their respective positions, but who have a good chance of earning the honors, since the voting slate is wiped clean for Round 2.

This all comes with an asterisk, however, as Bryce Harper finds himself on the outside looking in, no longer eligible to draw the start on his home turf. No disrespect to Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson, both of whom eclipsed two million votes in Round 1 and who are having seasons that are eerily similar to Harper’s, but this really shouldn’t have been the case.

Bryce Harper failing to advance to Round 2 of All-Star voting for a game in Philadelphia feels like a glitch in the matrix

Harper has been the face of this franchise since he came aboard in 2019. From the day MLB awarded the 2026 All-Star Game to Philadelphia all those years ago, we all figured that Harper would be in the starting lineup that July evening. Mind you, he was a right fielder at the time, and you could make that case that if he had shifted back to the outfield this year, it could have helped the Phillies solve a problem while also giving himself a more likely path to starting the All-Star Game, but let’s not open that can of worms.

The overriding point is this: Here’s a future Hall of Famer having a typical solid season and approaching the only chance he’ll ever have to represent the Phillies at home in an All-Star Game. It’s kind of a slap in the face to have a Dodger (a team with five other finalists already) and a Brave (three other finalists) head-to-head over him. 

Now we’ll be faced with some mini-battles and see who emerges in Round 2 of voting. It’s LA vs Atlanta at first base, Phillies vs Braves at second, Phillies vs Dodgers at third, and all three teams jockeying in the outfield (plus Juan Soto representing the dumpster fire up I-95). This voting competition could be fiercer than the game ends up being! It’s just unfortunate that Bryce Harper won’t be a part of it.

Ultimately, we can all settle down if Harper is at least selected to the team, which seems likely. But it’s not a sure thing if you have any combo of Marsh, Bohm, and Stott already there. Plus the pitching contingent of Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler, and Jhoan Duran will have some sort of representation. And don’t forget about Kyle Schwarber, who only leads the major leagues in home runs. Is MLB prepared to stack the deck with up to eight Phillies? Only one way to find out — vote hard for Stott, Bohm, and Marsh in the second round of balloting and dare the league to leave out some deserving Phils players. 

For those of us who grew up with All-Star voting that consisted of using your dad’s keys to poke holes in paper ballots at games, the whole current system is weird and scary. So, thank you to the Phillies fans who rolled with this whole “vote all the time and then vote again as we work through our arbitrary process” thing that MLB is using to drum up fan interest.

The Phillies will be well-represented at their home park this summer, but it will feel a bit strange not to have Bryce Harper trot out with the rest of the NL starters. He should still be there, but the fans will no longer have a say in whether or not it’s guaranteed to happen.

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