Twins 2B Dozier gets Blue Jays OF Bautista’s All-Star spot

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Brian Dozier is an American League All-Star after all.

Bautista finished fourth among outfielders in the fan voting for the All-Star Game. Bautista will skip the All-Star game to receive treatment on the sore right shoulder he’s been playing through for several weeks.

Dozier was beaten out by Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas in an online contest for the last spot on the team, despite an aggressive marketing campaign by the Twins to drum up votes.

The news was announced between innings of the Twins game against Detroit at Target Field, and the crowd gave Dozier a rousing standing ovation. So Dozier joins his teammate Glen Perkins to represent the Twins at this year’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

Jose Altuve was selected by fans as the starter and Jason Kipnis was picked to be the backup second baseman.

Dozier has been Minnesota’s best hitter this season, batting.260/.332/.517 with 17 homers, 26 doubles, three triples, seven stolen bases and 42 RBIs in 82 games entering Tuesday. Additionally, Boston’s Brock Holt was added as a versatile option off the bench. He has 49 RBI and a league-leading 66 runs scored. He was making plans to be in northern Minnesota for his four-day All-Star break. Another guess is that the Doziers will be quite all right with that.