The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lindor can’t seem to rock vote
Barring a voting miracle Lindor won’t be in line to start the mid-summer’s classic in a few weeks.
It’s a smile worth a million dollars. It’s a swing that’s pretty sweet to watch.
It’s a glove that produces highlight-reel plays.
He’s a baseball player that’s worth every penny to the Indians, but not enough All-Star Game votes to be a starter. Such is the mystery of Francisco Lindor, who at his rate might never start an All-Star game in his career, but is arguably the best shortstop in baseball.
Barring a voting miracle — he trails the leading vote-getter 1,272,233 to 898,977 — Lindor won’t be in line to start the midsummer’s classic in a few weeks in Washington, D.C.
Lindor’s teammate Jose Ramirez likely will, and he deserves it. The Indians third baseman has more than 1,800,000 votes and is safely in the lead.
Lindor deserves to be in the discussion as a starter, but he’s not. That’s the odd part of this — he’s barely on the radar.
The reason why in part can only be this: There’s a glut of talented AL shortstops for voters to consider. Still, Lindor is arguably the best of the bunch. The man with the most votes is the Orioles’ Manny Machado, who’s having a standout season similar to Lindor.
Machado is batting .310 with 21 home runs and 59 RBI and has built a reputation
as a star player since becoming a full-time starter in 2013. Machado is a fantastic
player. From 2015 to 2017, he’s hit 105 home runs, and he’s flashy. But so are a
lot of AL shortstops — perhaps none as flashy or charismatic as Lindor.
Last season, he finished second in AL shortstop All-Star voting to the Astros’ Carlos Correa, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2012 who’s lived up to that hype.
So has Lindor, the Indians’ No. 1 pick (eighth overall) in 2011 who’s developed into the face of the team and the total package.
There isn’t a box Lindor does not check as a star player:
• Following his monster game July 2 against the Royals — he went 2-for-4 with three runs scored, seven RBI and a grand slam — he’s hitting .298 with 23 home runs, 55 RBI, 73 runs scored, 27 doubles and 10 stolen bases. His homers are tied for third in the AL, and his doubles are tied for second.
Another nugget: Lindor’s 197 total bases and 73 runs lead the league.
• His defense is excellent, even with 11 errors this season. The routine plays look ho-hum, and he covers ground most shortstops can not.
• Lindor has the star power. As a rookie in 2015, he was second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, and was ninth and fifth in voting for the AL MVP award in 2016 and 2017.
• He plays on a winner. Two seasons ago, Lindor and the Indians were one game from winning the World Series, and the next season the team made a return trip to the postseason. With a big lead in the AL Central, Cleveland is well on its way to another spot in the postseason.
• And any case for Lindor has to include that million-dollar smile. It’s rare to watch Lindor in a game and not see him smiling and having fun. Isn’t that what baseball is about?
Lindor has all of that going for him, but it hasn’t translated into enough All-Star votes. Voting ends July 5, and Machado has more than a 300,000-vote lead on Lindor, but it’s worse. Correa has more than 1,100,000 votes. Lindor could get to a million votes, and that’s something to build on for future seasons.
Right now, though, Lindor just can’t find enough votes. All the ingredients are there.
It’s baffling.