Angels News: Shohei Ohtani named all-star starter, Mike Trout advances to Phase 2

For the third straight season, Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani will be an all-star. Ohtani earned an automatic starting spot after being the leading vote-getter in the American League. Each of the leading vote-getters earned starting spots, so Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves will be in the outfield for the NL. This is the second straight season Ohtani has led the AL in total votes.

"“I would like to thank all the fans that voted for me, this is a huge honor. I will use this as motivation and will continue to give it my all on the field.”"

Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani defeated Brandon Belt in the DH race by a landslide and edged out Belt's teammate, Bo Bichette for the overall AL lead. Ohtani racked up 2,646,307 votes while Bichette accumulated only 2.1 million.

Shohei Ohtani named AL all-star starter, Mike Trout advances to Phase 2

While Ohtani earned an automatic spot, his teammate, Mike Trout, did not. Trout, despite a down season, finished second among all AL outfielders only behind the injured Aaron Judge. With there being a realistic shot Judge won't even be back by the time the all-star game comes around, there's a good chance Trout's path to a starting spot will be even easier.

Trout is looking for his 11th all-star appearance and his 10th straight as a starter. Hopefully, this time, Trout will be healthy if he does make it.

The Angels outfielder has been going through the worst full season of his career by far, slashing .250/.358/.466 with 15 home runs and 39 RBI. Hopefully Trout gets things going and finds a way to secure his spot as an all-star starter.

No other Angels player advanced to Phase 2 of the voting so they won't have other starters, but there's a good chance the Angels have other players voted in by managers to either pitch, or come off the bench.