Shortly after Shohei Ohtani crushed his 28th home run of the season on Thursday, MLB announced that the Los Angeles Dodgers star will be the starting designated hitter at next month's All-Star Game. Not surprisingly, Ohtani earned an automatic bid for receiving the most votes in the National League.

For the American League, New York Yankees' Aaron Judge earned the most votes in MLB and also received an automatic bid to start at outfield.

Last week, the league announced which players had received the most votes per position in each league, and Judge had the most votes overall and the most in the AL, while Ohtani had the most votes in the NL and the second-most votes overall.

This is Ohtani's fifth consecutive All-Star bid. This is Judge's seventh overall All-Star bid, and he's started in six of those appearances.

Phase 1 of All-Star voting ended on Thursday as the finalists for each position will be named that night. From there, the top two vote-getters in each position, as well as the top six outfielders, will move on for Phase 2 voting, which closes Wednesday, July 2. The winners of each position will be named that night. More explanation on All-Star voting can be read here.

The 2025 All-Star Game will take place on Tuesday, July 15 at Truist Park in Atlanta.

More MLB on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge Earn Automatic Bids to 2025 All-Star Game.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate