Cal Raleigh racking up votes for 1st All-Star Game nod | M’s notebook

Cal Raleigh is well on his way to his first All-Star Game appearance.

J.P. Crawford, though, has some catching up to do to make his first All-Star team.

In the first public update on MLB voting released Monday, Raleigh has overwhelming support to be the starting catcher for the American League in the All-Star Game next month in Atlanta.

Raleigh has amassed 1,043,168 votes, well ahead of Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk at catcher and trailing only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (1,568,527) among all AL position players.

Raleigh, in the midst of one of the best seasons ever by a catcher, is tied for the MLB lead with 26 home runs.

Dan Wilson, in 1996, is the only catcher in franchise history selected to the All-Star Game.

Crawford, meanwhile, has a strong case for his first All-Star selection, though the shortstop position is pretty well stacked in the AL.

Crawford is No. 8 in voting among AL shortstops with 142,123 votes. Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson (562,696) ranks No. 1, ahead of Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. (519,984) and the Astros’ Jeremy Peña (341,515).

Among other Mariners, Julio Rodríguez is ninth among AL outfielders with 316,626 votes; Jorge Polanco (101,019) is eighth at designated hitter; Dylan Moore (131,311) is eighth at second base; Ben Williamson (86,467) is 10th at third base; and Rowdy Tellez (74,492) is 10th at first base.

Kowar optioned

The Mariners optioned reliever Jackson Kowar to Triple-A Tacoma on Monday afternoon to open a roster spot for Logan Gilbert, who was activated from the injured list ahead of his first start since April 25.

Kowar pitched well in his first stint with the Mariners, 15 months removed from Tommy John surgery. He allowed just two runs in 8.2 innings, with eight strikeouts and three walks.

“I think he’s proven to us and to himself that he is healthy,” Wilson said.

The decision came down to a numbers game in the Mariners bullpen. Kowar was one of just three pitchers — Matt Brash and Casey Legumina the others — who had a minor-league option remaining, and he became the odd-man out.

The Mariners want to give right-hander Zach Pop a shot to see what he can do. Pop, 28, who signed him on a minor-league deal in April, after he’d been released by Toronto, was promoted from Tacoma last week. He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning Monday night in his M’s debut vs. the Red Sox.

Red Sox react to Devers trade

It was a tumultuous — and shocking — Sunday for the Boston Red Sox, who completed a series sweep of the rival Yankees only to learn shortly before their cross-country flight to Seattle that star slugger Rafael Devers had been traded to the San Francisco Giants.

“Obviously, it’s a huge day,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Monday afternoon, sitting in the T-Mobile Park visitors’ dugout in his first public comments since the trade.

“Our job is to show up today and play the Mariners. [Devers] means so much to that group; means so much to the organization, to the city of Boston. I’m not going to hide it. But at the same time, we’ve got to show up. We’re playing good baseball. They’re one of the teams that are ahead of us [in the AL wild card standings]. So we’ve got to try to win the series.”

Tensions had escalated this spring after the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman, the Mariners’ longtime AL West rival, to play third base, pushing Devers to designated hitter.

“There’s some reasons that it didn’t work out, and I don’t want to pinpoint stuff, whatever, but the last few months haven’t been easy, right?” Cora said. “We made decisions in the offseason. Circumstances have changed the last month and that’s a business decision we made as an organization.”