Early All-Star balloting has Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez third among AL catchers

Seven-time All-Star Salvador Perez remains in the running for a starting nod for the American League in this summer’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, but the Kansas City Royals catcher has a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to make a second consecutive start.

Perez received 266,604 votes, which ranked third among AL catchers, behind the Toronto Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk (1,057,008) and the New York Yankees’ Jose Trevino (387,983) in the balloting, according to the first update released by MLB on Tuesday morning.

Kirk ranks third among all AL players.

The initial phase of fan balloting, done online and via mobile devices through MLB.com and individual teams sites as well as the MLB app, continues until 1 p.m. Central time Thursday, June 30. Fans can submit up to five ballots per a 24-hour period up until that point.

MLB will reveal the top two vote recipients at each position (the top six outfielders) in each league on June 30, via a broadcast on MLB Network at 4 p.m. Central.

The top vote-getters will advance to the second phase of voting to determine the All-Star starters.

Perez was the only Royals player ranked among the top eight at his position.

Left fielder Andrew Benintendi received the second-most votes (240,671) of any Royals player, but he ranked 11th among AL outfielders.

Rookie infielder Bobby Witt Jr. ranked ninth among AL third baseman (79,796 votes), though he has played the majority of his games at shortstop (37 games, 35 starts compared to 30 games and 28 starts at third base) this season. He started playing shortstop regularly in the middle of May.

Whit Merrifield, a two-time All-Star, ranked ninth among AL second baseman (63,915 votes). This season, Merrifield has played 33 games at second base (27 starts). He has also started games at right field (28), center field (six) and designated hitter (five).