Major League Baseball announced the return of the official All-MLB Team, which allows fans to recognize the top players from the 2020 season.
Among Los Angeles Dodgers players nominated include shortstop Corey Seager, third baseman Justin Turner, outfielders Mookie Betts and AJ Pollock, catcher Will Smith and pitcher Clayton Kershaw.
This is the second annual voting for the honor, with winners being announced on MLB Network on Dec. 7. Voting began this week and runs through through Friday, Nov. 13th at 11:00 a.m. PT. Fans have the ability to vote for their 2020 All-MLB choices at mlb.com/allmlb or on the MLB App once every 24 hours.
Additionally, the ballot is available in Spanish at lasmayores.com/allmlb and also on the Spanish version of the MLB App.
Betts and Bellinger are the only current Dodgers players who were voted to an All-MLB Team in 2019. Bellinger was a First Team selection, while Betts was a member of the Second Team when he was with the Boston Red Sox. Former Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu was also voted to the Second Team last year.
It is clear that the addition of Betts was a big one for the Dodgers as he helped them win their first World Series since 1988. In 55 regular-season games, Betts hit .292/.366/.562 with 16 home runs, 47 runs scored, 39 RBI and 10 stolen bases while also playing Gold Glove level defense.
He and Seager were huge driving forces at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup and deserve recognition for their stellar seasons. Seager was named the MVP of both the National League Championship Series and World Series, and that is on top of an outstanding regular season as well.
Seager hit .307/.358/.585 with 15 home runs, 38 runs scored and 41 RBI in 52 games, reestablishing himself as one of the premier shortstops in all of baseball.
Right next to him on the infield was Turner, who had another strong season in 2020. In 42 games, Turner hit .307/.400/.460 with four home runs and 23 RBI. This could have been his last in a Dodgers uniform as he gets set to test free agency this winter.
Perhaps the most surprising season of the bunch was AJ Pollock, who almost didn’t play due to family issues and then testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) just before the start of the season.
Pollock decided to stick it out with his teammates and had a career year, batting .276/.314/.566 with 16 home runs and 34 RBI in 55 games. His career high in home runs is 21 and it took Pollock more than double the amount of games to do it in 2018.
Smith was also another player to have an unexpected spectacular 2020 season. He was able to replicate the success he had his rookie year by hitting .289/.401/.579 with eight home runs and 25 RBI in 37 games.
He had the pleasure of catching Kershaw, who bounced back from a back injury to start the year and had another All-Star season. In 10 starts, Kershaw went 6-2 with a 2.16 ERA, 3.31 FIP and 0.84 WHIP with 62 strikeouts and eight walks in 58.1 innings.
Betts, Hernandez recognized for defense
Individual awards have already started this offseason, which saw Betts and Kiké Hernandez both win a Fielding Bible Award.
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