Chicago Cubs News: 7 Cubs are finalists in All-Star Balloting

Major League Baseball today announced the finalists in the balloting for the 2019 All-Star Game and the Cubs have seven finalists for the starting lineup of this year’s game in Cleveland.

The Cubs have finalists at seven of the eight positions. The Cubs who made the final ballot are: catcher Willson Contreras, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, shortstop Javier Baez, third baseman Kris Bryant and outfielders Albert Almora Jr., Jason Heyward and Kyle Schwarber.

MLB has revamped the All-Star balloting this year. There was an initial “Preliminary Phase” which served as a kind of primary, winnowing the ballot at each position down to three players for each league. (There are nine outfield finalists for the three outfield starting positions.) If you’ve been voting on-line the past few weeks, this is what you’ve been voting for.

The second phase of the voting, and the phase that will determine who is in the starting lineup, will start on Wednesday, June 26 at 11 am Central time. It will last only 28 hours, ending the next day at 3 pm Central. The winners will be announced later that night on Google MLB All-Star Election Night starting at 6 pm Central.

All-Star pitchers and reserves will be announced on Sunday June 30 at 4:30 pm Central on the Google MLB All-Star Selection Show. Both shows will be broadcast on ESPN.

The complete list of finalists can be found here.

So if you want to see a lot of Cubs in the starting lineup of this year’s All-Star Game, get ready to vote on Wednesday.