Josh Donaldson named starting AL 3rd baseman for MLB all-star game
Blue Jay set record with 14 million-plus votes
Josh Donaldson is headed to Major League Baseball's all-star game.
The Toronto Blue Jays third baseman will be starting for the American League on July 14 in Cincinnati, the league announced on Sunday.
Donaldson set an all-time single season all-star voting record with 14,090,188 total votes. He surpasses the previous record set by Josh Hamilton in 2012.
Donaldson will be making his second consecutive appearance at the all-star game after representing the Oakland Athletics last season. He was acquired by Toronto in an off-season trade with Oakland for Canadian third baseman Brett Lawrie and a handful of prospects.
The 29-year-old Donaldson has excelled for the Jays, hitting 19 home runs and 56 runs-batted in over 83 games. He also has a .296 batting average and is tied for first in the MLB with 62 runs scored.
It's the third time in the last five years that a Toronto player has led the MLB in all-star voting. Jose Bautista led the league in 2011 and 2014. The Blue Jays are the first team to have different players finish as the top vote-getter in consecutive seasons since fan-voting returned in 1970.
Donaldson is the first Toronto third baseman and fourth Jays infielder to win a fan election. Second baseman Roberto Alomar, John Olerud and Carlos Delgado previously accomplished the feat.
Toronto catcher Russell Martin was second in voting for catchers with 7,521,557. Bautista was fourth in AL outfielders with 9,050,339.
Overall, 620 million votes were cast to set a new record, exceeding the previous mark of 391 million in 2012.