Baseball fans react to Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani leading MLB jersey sales this year: "Very surprised Ohtani isn’t number one" 

Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani are 1-2 in MLB jersey sales through the first half of the season.

Acuna, the Atlanta Braves outfielder, and Ohtani, the Los Angeles Angels pitching/hitting do-it-all superstar, are both starting in Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game and are the current odds-on favorites to win their respective National and American League Most Valuable Player awards this season.

Shohei Ohtani enters the All-Star break as MLB's leading hitter in several categories. Hitting a career-best .302, he leads the majors with 32 home runs, a .663 slugging percentage, a 1.050 on-base plus slugging percentage and six triples.

Playing in his third consecutive All-Star Game, Shohei Ohtani is also 7-4 with a 3.32 ERA, a 1.096 WHIP and 132 strikeouts in 17 starts this season on the pitcher's mound.

Ronald Acuna Jr. leads the majors with 79 runs scored, and also leads the NL in several categories. He is tops in the senior circuit with 409 plate appearances, 41 stolen bases and a .990 OPS.

Playing in his fourth All-Star Game this season, Ronald Acuna Jr. is hitting a career-best .331. The 2018 NL Rookie of the Year, his best placement in MVP voting was fifth in 2019, his first All-Star season. He has finished 12th in the NL MVP vote twice.

What surprised many was that San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. had the third-best selling jersey in MLB over the first three-plus months of the 2023 season.

Tatis was not eligible to begin playing this season until April 20 as he served out the final days of his 80-game suspension handed down in 2022 for using performance-enhancing drugs.

A one-time All-Star, Tatis is not participating in Tuesday's All-Star Game. He is hitting .288 with 16 homers, 44 RBIs, 52 runs scored and 14 steals through 70 games.

One player not in the top-10 of first-half sales that many expect to climb high on the list by season's end is Cincinnati Reds rookie shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

De La Cruz, just 30 games into his MLB career, is already one of the most exciting players in the league. He stole his way from first to home on three straight pitches in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.

On the season, he is hitting .325 with four homers, 16 RBIs and 16 steals in 126 at-bats.

Fans coming out in droves for Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani

Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves scores a run

Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani are two of the most popular players in MLB. However, while Acuna is signed with the Braves through 2026, Ohtani is an impending free agent this winter.

While Acuna is signed to an eight-year, $100 million contract, Ohtani is speculated to command as much as $50 million per season as a free agent this coming offseason.