Joc Pederson remains 6th in NL All-Star vote, but path to OF spot clearer

The final All-Star voting update was released by Major League Baseball on Monday, and Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson remains sixth among National League outfielders in votes.

Pederson has 2,977,227 votes, 1.6 million behind fifth-place Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates, and 2.5 million votes behind third-place Matt Holliday of the Cardinals.

But Pederson's path to starting the game, not just playing, might not be so treacherous after all, as Jon Weisman of Dodger Insider notes that the second- through fourth-place outfielders - Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins, Holliday, and Nori Aoki of the Giants - are all currently on the disabled list.

We know Stanton won't play on July 14 in Cincinnati, since he's out 4-6 weeks with a broken hamate bone in his hand.

Holliday has been dealing with a quad strain for three weeks and might not be back for the All-Star Game in two weeks, though he told reporters he at least planned to attend the game if elected starter, per Fox Sports Midwest.

Aoki fractured his right fibula getting hit by a pitch at Dodger Stadium on June 20, and will be in a cast for at least another week. His status for the All-Star Game is unknown, but also frankly undeserving given other candidates. He's in fourth because he was on the Royals last year and Kansas City fans have been voting like crazy this year. If Aoki isn't voted in, he probably won't even be on the All-Star team, even with Bruce Bochy as the NL manager.

The point is, there are avenues for Pederson to both secure a spot on the NL All-Star team, and even possibly start. Pederson is hitting .241/.383/.522 with 19 home runs this season, sixth in the NL in on-base percentage and OPS+ (150), seventh in OPS, eighth in slugging percentage, 14th in wOBA (.389), 12th in wRC+ (154), third in walks (54) and sixth in home runs.

There have only been five Dodgers rookies to make the All-Star team. The last was Hideo Nomo in 1995.

Among other Dodgers, Adrian Gonzalez remains in second place among NL first basemen with 3,688,928 votes, with roughly half the votes of the well-deserving Paul Goldschmidt (7,341,683).

Yasmani Grandal is fourth among NL catchers with 1,624,424 votes, well behind Buster Posey (7,990,423).

Yasiel Puig is 15th among NL outfielders with 2,009,405 votes.

Voting, which is all done online through MLB.com, runs through Thursday night at 8:59 p.m. PT. All-Star starting position players will be announced on ESPN on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., with reserves and pitchers announced next Monday at 4 p.m. on ESPN.