Usually in baseball, the true blockbuster trades take place after the All-Star Game. This can create awkward situations at the game itself—remember shortstop Manny Machado's 2018 exit from the Baltimore Orioles?—but rarely does it affect the balloting for the Midsummer Classic.
That's not the case this year. On Sunday, the Boston Red Sox traded designated hitter Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants for four players—in effect forcing him to change horses in mid-All-Star race.
As Tim Healey of The Boston Globe pointed out Monday, Devers's nearly 800,000 All-Star votes will now transfer from the American League to National League. That puts him a distant second to baseball's most famous designated hitter—Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Rafael Devers led AL DHs in All-Star balloting with 796,382 votes, per MLB.
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) June 16, 2025
But since he is in the NL now, he is off the AL ballot (and well behind Shohei Ohtani on the NL ballot).
So the AL DH leader is the Orioles’ Ryan O’Hearn with 353,029 — less than half of Devers’ total.
The new American League leader is Ryan O'Hearn of the Orioles, who is slashing .310/.391/.502 in a solid year for the league's most disappointing team.
Devers previously made All-Star appearances in 2021, 2022 and 2024. He is 1-for-2 lifetime with a double and a walk in the contest.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rafael Devers Affected by All-Star Voting Quirk After Interleague Trade to Giants.
