Juan Soto’s surge takes center stage as Phase 2 All-Star voting begins

Major League Baseball has kicked off Phase 2 voting for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard, moving the fan-driven process to its next set of decisions for the starting lineups. In the early reads of the Phase 2 leaderboard, Juan Soto has surfaced as a prominent name in the race to win an All-Star starting spot.

The format matters because Phase 2 is where the remaining starters take their shape across the National League and American League. Rather than voting broadly from all qualified players, the league’s update centers on the finalists at each position, meaning the next ballot windows are narrower and the margin for error shrinks as voters focus on a smaller pool.

MLB’s update frames the stakes around the final starting lineup construction, with the process designed to determine who joins already-identified fan-voting benchmarks. The release points to Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers as a fixed anchor in the All-Star starter picture, and the Phase 2 waves are what decide the rest of the position battles around that core.

Within that structure, Soto’s “surging” movement is significant not just because it reflects a popularity swing, but because All-Star starters often become the recognizable face of the event from day one. A starter role also tends to influence how managers view lineups during the selection of the game’s batting order, even though the final on-field plan is ultimately managed in-game.

As Phase 2 continues, the watch list in both leagues centers on which players remain in position to convert finalist status into a starting nod. Because the ballot field is position-specific and tied to Phase 2 progress, the pressure is different than in earlier rounds that allow fans to widen their influence across more candidates.

For teams, the early momentum is the first report of how their fan bases are likely to show up in the final sprint toward the All-Star Game. For players like Soto, the immediate question is whether the current push holds steady through the rest of Phase 2 voting, or whether the finalist races tighten into a last-day scramble.

The league will continue updating the All-Star ballot movement as Phase 2 progresses, and the next developments to track are which positional contests flip into true runaway status and which remain clustered. Those answers will largely determine the identity of the starting lineups when the voting process closes and the All-Star starters are finalized.