Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes third among outfielders in NL All-Star voting

Yoenis Cespedes holds a comfortable lead as the National League's third starting outfielder in the latest MLB All-Star Game voting tallies, which were released yesterday afternoon. The Mets outfielder has netted over one million votes, which currently puts him on track to start alongside Bryce Harper and Dexter Fowler. Although mired in a slump, the center fielder has belted 15 home runs with a .571 slugging percentage this season.

The Chicago Cubs, boasting the league's five leading vote-getters, continue to dominate the ballot. Anthony Rizzo has established an enormous lead at first base with over three times as many votes as Paul Goldschmidt, who leads the position in WAR. In a two-man battle at third base, Kris Bryant has a healthy lead over Nolan Arenado. Offseason Mets target Ben Zobrist leads former Met Daniel Murphy and current Met Neil Walker at second.

Despite batting .219/.318/.307, Jason Heyward trails Cespedes in fourth place by only about 400,000 votes. While the Cubs certainly deserve recognition, it's going too far when Heyward and Jorge Soler are in the running and Addison Russell (.672 OPS) leads all shortstops.

The recent results also show the foolishness of opening voting so early. On the strength of hitting five homers in five games, Corey Seager is hitting .284/.324/.526 with 14 homers and a 2.8 WAR, making the Los Angeles Dodgers rookie a far better choice than Russell. He's not even in the top five.

Looking at the full picture rather than overreacting to early successes, Marcell Ozuna, Gregory Polanco, and Starling Marte are among the outfielders with the most credible gripes of trailing Cespedes. But he has no need to look over his shoulder just yet. Voting closes on June 30, and it would take a huge swing for the lone Mets leader to lose his starting seat.