All-Star voting update: Polanco holds lead at shortstop, Castro falls out of top three catchers

REMINDER: Vote for your Twins here!

The official website of Major League Baseball has released a second and final update of the 2019 All-Star primary voting. While results still project well from a Twins perspective, there is one fewer Minnesotan in line to advance to the starters’ election than the five in the previous update.

Here’s how all the Twins on the ballot are currently performing, starting with those in line to move forward. (All vote totals are rounded to the nearest thousand.)

If you haven’t yet cast your five daily votes - and as the primary closes this Friday (June 21) at 3 p.m. Central - you may do so here. As a reminder, the top-three vote getters will be moving on to the next round.

In Line to Move On

Jorge Polanco, shortstop: 1st

Leads 2nd place by: 161,000 votes

MVP candidate Polanco has maintained a strong lead among AL shortstops, holding a six-figure vote lead over Carlos Correa. (Yes, I know vote totals are erased for the primary election, but we can ignore that for now.)

C.J. Cron, first base: 2nd

Trails 1st place by: 110,000 votes
Leads 3rd place by: 25,000 votes
Leads 4th place by: 69,000 votes

While Luke Voit appears beyond reach for the top of the primary election leaderboard, Cron has two challengers, Carlos Santana and Jose Abreu, threatening to knock him out of the starters’ election. But Cron is still hitting the tar out of baseballs, which is the best thing he can do for his chances.

Nelson Cruz, designated hitter: 3rd

Trails 1st place by: 387,000 votes
Leads 4th place by: 143,000 votes

Cruz appears to be in a steady third as the primaries reach their conclusion, with J.D. Martinez well in the lead, Hunter Pence nearly 100,000 votes ahead of Cruz in second, and Cruz having paced a comfortable gap in front of Shohei Ohtani.

Eddie Rosario, outfield: 6th

Trails 1st place by: 1,217,000 votes
Trails 3rd place by: 237,000 votes
Leads 10th place by: 252,000 votes

On the strength of 19 early-season homers, Rosario has put himself in excellent position to advance to the starters’ election.

But if voting were to close now, Rosario would be the fourth and last Twin on the ballot to remain in the running for a starting spot. To vote for the others, listed below, the ballot can be found here.

Outside, Looking In

Jason Castro, catcher: 4th

Trails 3rd place by: 43,000 votes

Castro held a narrow third-place lead at the time of the last update but has since been passed by Robinson Chirinos. The five-digit gap between he and a spot in the starters’ election is not unsurpassable, so let’s not see it remained unsurpassed, shall we?

Max Kepler, outfield: 10th

Trails 9th place by: 76,000 votes

Kepler’s five-digit gap behind Josh Reddick will be a bit trickier to pass, especially as with multiple outfield votes it’s possible for a fan to select both Kepler and Reddick, but it’s also doable.

Byron Buxton, outfield: 11th

Trails 9th place by: 94,000 votes

Tenth and eleventh? That’s just cruel. It’ll take a strong push to get Kepler past Reddick in just over four days; it will require an unrelenting one to get Kepler and Buxton in.

Jonathan Schoop, second base: 4th

Trails 3rd place by: 377,000 votes

The number of votes Schoop would need to reach the current third-place threshold is higher than his current vote total (363,000). Oh well.

Marwin Gonzalez, third base: 5th

Trails 3rd place by: 134,000 votes

González was in seventh place in the latest update, so his rise to fifth is impressive, but at this point in the running, advancement to the starters’ election seems just out of reach.

To recapitulate: four Twins are in position to advance to the Starters’ Election, and the other five are either one or two spots out of the running. That’s still pretty impressive... but getting one or two more deserving Twins there would be even better.

You can help by voting for them here.