The 2026 Midsummer Classic has its first participants, and one of them is a Blue Jays fan favourite.

Leading all AL players in votes with 3.2 million, Ernie Clement will be heading to Philadelphia in July for his first-ever All-Star Game, being named the squad’s starting second baseman. With Phase 1 now over, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Andres Gimenez, Alejandro Kirk, and Kazuma Okamoto have moved on to the next phase of voting.

Clement has been one of the key players on the Jays’ roster this season, putting forth a 1.2 bWAR while working as the club’s primary second baseman. Across 77 games and 295 at-bats, Clement owns a .292/.313/.437 slash line with an AL-leading 20 doubles, one triple, and seven home runs with 28 RBIs.

While his statcast metrics aren’t lighting up the rankings board, he sits in the 90th percentile or higher in whiff% (16.0), squared-up% (34.0), and K% (10.4), with 32 punchouts on the year compared to 10 walks.

Defensively, Clement owns a .974 fielding percentage and a -2 DRS at second base, where he has spent the majority of the season, with a respective .977 fielding rate and a 0 DRS at shortstop across just 92 innings.

The Jays’ infielder has turned into a fan favourite on the diamond for his comeback story (DFA pickup to now All-Star) and for his impressive run through the 2025 postseason, where he set the playoff record for hits in a single postseason (30).

Also heading to Philly will be manager John Schneider, who earned the AL Manager spot after making it to the World Series last year. Shohei Ohtani earned an automatic bid to the game after leading all NL Players in fan voting through Phase 1.

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