Major League Baseball’s 2021 All-Star voting is very different this year. Under the old premise you just voted for all of the same players from the start of voting to the end of voting. This year they are having two rounds, with “finalists” moving on to a second round and the vote totals starting over. The winners of the final round are going to be the All-Star starters. The Cincinnati Reds only had two players reach the final round of voting – outfielders Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker.
Cincinnati’s two outfielders finished 2nd and 3rd in the first round of voting with both trailing Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. Voting in this round is much shorter and voting ends on Thursday at 2pm ET. You can vote at MLB.com/vote and then Thursday night the starters will be announced at 9pm ET on ESPN.
Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker have never been All-Stars in their career. For much of the season the two of them have gone back-and-forth as they have battled for the league lead in batting average and OPS. After last night’s grand slam and 7-RBI performance in a win over the Philadelphia Phillies, Castellanos is hitting .347/.398/.604 while leading the league in average, hits, doubles, and total bases. He’s in the top five in the league in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. Winker has cooled off a little bit in the last week as he’s worked through a slump where he went 2-19 before going 1-4 last night. Through 70 games he’s hitting .324/.401/.588. Winker is in the top five in the league in average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, hits, home runs, and runs scored.
It’s been so long since a Cincinnati Red started the All-Star game that the player who did so is no longer in the game. OK, so it wasn’t really THAT long ago. Zack Cozart started for the 2017 National League All-Stars. Still, if voting for things like this is your thing, get to it. There’s not much time left, and while it seems unlikely that both Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker would be left off of the team if they aren’t voted as starters, it would be more fun to watch them get out there and rake in those ugly All-Star jerseys a little bit longer as starters than coming off of the bench for maybe one at-bat.
Done. First thing this am.
Both Winker and Castellanos deserve to be starters.
Vote Pedro!
Oh, sorry, wrong thread!
But yeah, both of those dudes deserve it and should make team even if not starting. Will do what I can to make sure they don’t have to go all Gary Templeton on us
+500
Done.
Doug, what are best options on table as you see them for the Reds and Nick C?? I’m assuming Bob C. will not pay him anywhere near what he might get from opting out end year. So try trade if/when out of Playoffs? Can they offer “qualifying offer” in this case and get draft pick? Thanks.
why do they want my email and address? i like the old paper ballots with the hanging chads at the ballpark lol
A million reasons why. First, they hope you forget to click the box about taking you off of their mailing list because they want to spam you to death about their Mastercard Fan Duel Huskvarna Selig Motors special offer 21 times a month. And second, so you can’t stuff the ballot box.
If you get 20 email address you can stuff away!!!!
+500
How much will it take to keep Nick? If they could meet the number, then would they immediately have to start trimming?
Sonny 2 more seasons = $22 mil total
Suarez 3 more seasons = $35 mil total
Buy-out Joey for 2024
2022 would be a staggering payroll for the Reds with another $12-$15 mil added on for Nick, but then trade Sonny or Suarez and they’re basically back on line with their current budget. Then after 2023 Joey & Moose’s stupid contract come off the books and they’ll have whatever they need!
Bottom line they could step up and keep Nick if they really want to! I think he’s turned the corner into what he was with half-season w/the Cubs, but his career ops is only .811. He may not get the $30+/mil year offers that seem so overwhelming.
Snell out tonight (stomach bug).