Trout is only active player to win fan vote 10 straight times

It took an early-season knee injury to prevent Angels outfielder Mike Trout from continuing to make history.

Until 2024, Trout had made the AL All-Star team in every season in which the game was played since he became a full-time starter in 2012 (recall that there was no game in 2020 due to the shortened season). More specifically, Trout was voted as a starter for 10 consecutive All-Star Games from 2013-23, with that streak finally coming to an end when he only played 29 games before the All-Star break in 2024 due to knee surgery.

How rare is this? Since the All-Star Game was first played in 1933, only eight other players have been voted to start in at least 10 consecutive years. Unsurprisingly, all eight are in the Hall of Fame. (Note: While All-Star voting has always existed in some form, it bounced back and forth between fans and people inside the game – managers, coaches and players – before landing permanently with fans in 1970.)

Below are the all-time rankings for both most consecutive seasons being voted as an All-Star starter, as well as the most consecutive seasons just making the roster. These rankings refer to being selected for the game, regardless of whether the player participated in the game. For example, Trout gets credit for being voted as a starter in 2022, even though he did not play in the game.

Most Consecutive Years Voted as All-Star Starter

1. Rod Carew, Twins/Angels
18 seasons (1967-1984) at 2B/1B

Of the players listed in the below rankings of “most consecutive All-Star rosters,” Carew is the only one who never made the All-Star team as a reserve.

2. Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles
13 seasons (1989-2001) at SS/3B

Unless Trout gets the nod in 2023, Ripken is still the most recent player to have a streak of 10-plus seasons being named an All-Star starter.

3-T. George Brett, Royals
11 seasons (1976-1986) at 3B

Brett was the face of the Royals during their heyday, as seven of the franchise’s nine all-time playoff appearances came during Brett’s 11-season streak.

3-T. Ken Griffey Jr., Mariners/Reds
11 seasons (1990-2000) at OF

Griffey is one of five players all-time to make the All-Star team 10 times before turning 30, joining Mickey Mantle, Al Kaline, Johnny Bench and Ivan Rodriguez. He is the only one of those five players to be voted as a starter all 10 times.

5-T. Willie Mays, Giants
10 seasons (1957-1966) at OF

Mays also won an NL Gold Glove Award and finished in the top six in MVP voting in all 10 of these seasons.

5-T. Johnny Bench, Reds
10 seasons (1969-1978) at C

This streak included the only back-to-back World Series-winning seasons in Reds franchise history (1975 and 1976).

5-T. Ozzie Smith, Cardinals
10 seasons (1983-1992) at SS

This 10-season streak was embedded in a 13-season Gold Glove streak for Smith, which represents more than any other shortstop has total Gold Gloves in MLB history.

5-T. Wade Boggs, Red Sox/Yankees
10 seasons (1987-1996) at 3B

Boggs’ decade-long streak was almost evenly split between both sides of baseball’s most historic rivalry: six such seasons with the Red Sox, and the latter four coming with the Yankees.

5-T. Mike Trout, Angels
10 seasons (2013-19, 2021-23) at OF

From 2012-23, Trout made the AL All-Star roster in every season in which he played a game before July 1, with 2012 being the only such season he wasn’t voted as a starter. Now that Trout's streak has been snapped, the new longest active streaks belong to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, who have both been voted as starters four straight times from 2021-24.

10-T. Ivan Rodriguez, Rangers
9 seasons (1993-2001) at C

Over the course of this streak, Rodriguez won nine Gold Glove Awards and six Silver Slugger Awards, in addition to 1999 AL MVP honors.

10-T. Mike Piazza, Dodgers/Mets
9 seasons (1994-2002) at C

Out of the other members of this list, each of them who was Draft-eligible was taken in the seventh round or earlier. In contrast, Piazza was picked in the 62nd round in 1988.

10-T. Alex Rodriguez, Mariners/Rangers/Yankees
9 seasons (2000-2008), SS/3B

While Rodriguez was among MLB’s most dominant players throughout the 2000s, his first and only World Series win coincidentally came in 2009 with the Yankees, the only year in the decade in which he did not make the AL All-Star roster.

Most Consecutive Years Making All-Star Team

1. Hank Aaron, Braves/Brewers
21 seasons (1955-1975)

Not only does Aaron have the all-time record for most consecutive All-Star seasons, but his 21 consecutive such seasons are more than any other player has total such seasons.

2-T. Willie Mays, Giants/Mets
20 seasons (1954-1973)

After arriving back to the U.S. following his Korean War service, Mays was named an All-Star in each of the final 20 seasons of his career.

2-T. Stan Musial, Cardinals
20 seasons (1943-44, 1946-63; no ASG played in 1945)

Like Mays, Musial also made the All-Star team in each of his final 20 seasons, as Musial did not play in 1945 while he was serving in World War II.

4. Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles
19 seasons (1983-2001)

Given that he has the “Iron Man” nickname, it’s no surprise that Ripken has the longest All-Star streak among players whose careers began in the Expansion Era (since 1961), doing so in each of his final 19 seasons.

5. Rod Carew, Twins/Angels
18 seasons (1967-1984)

Breaking the trend set by Mays, Musial and Ripken, Carew actually made the All-Star team in each of his first 18 MLB seasons, only missing it in his final year of 1985.

6-T. Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox
15 seasons (1965-1979)

“Yaz” made 18 All-Star teams in his 23 seasons with Boston, with his final ASG berth remarkably coming at age 43 in 1983, but his longest streak came over the 1960s and ‘70s.

6-T. Brooks Robinson, Orioles
15 seasons (1960-1974)

Besides being tied on this list, another commonality between Yastrzemski and Robinson is that they both played all 23 of their MLB seasons with one team.

6-T. Yogi Berra, Yankees
15 seasons (1948-1962)

There’s just something about 15-season All-Star streaks specifically that appeals to legends who played in the mid-late 1900s for franchises that currently reside in the AL East.

9. Mickey Mantle, Yankees
14 seasons (1952-1965)

Though Mantle was one year shy of matching Berra’s All-Star streak, he actually had more total All-Star seasons than his longtime teammate (16, to Berra’s 15).

10-T. Al Kaline, Tigers
13 seasons (1955-1967)

Kaline wasn’t done making All-Star teams when his streak finished. He made his next All-Star team four years later in 1971, and managed to eke out yet another one in his final season of 1974.

10-T. Johnny Bench, Reds
13 seasons (1968-1980)

Not only did Bench make 13 straight All-Star teams, but he also won the Gold Glove in each of the first 10 of those seasons, tied for the longest such streak by any catcher all-time (Ivan Rodriguez, 1992-2001).

10-T. George Brett, Royals
13 seasons (1976-1988)

Though Brett never had more than 30 homers in a season, he still led MLB in slugging percentage three separate times over this span (1980, ‘83, ‘85).