CHICAGO – When it comes to the Cubs, there aren’t a lot of great things to write about this June as the club is sporting just a 5-14 record in their fall towards the bottom of Major League Baseball.
But at least they’ve got one thing going for them: The outstanding play of their catcher, and it’s caught the eye of fans in Chicago and around the league.
Willson Contreras currently has the lead in the National League All-Star voting at the catcher position in the first totals for the midsummer classic that were released this week. He currently has 801,630 votes and a sizable lead over the Braves’ Travis d’Arnaud, Braves, who has 471,921 votes.
At the moment, Contreras is the only Cubs’ player with a chance to start the All-Star Game with only two other teammates cracking in the Top Ten of the voting at their positions. Shortstop Nico Hoerner is currently 10th in the shortstop voting while third baseman Patrick Wisdom is 8th.
Continuing his seventh season with the Cubs and the last under his current contract, Contreras has delivered one of the best seasons of his career so far. The catcher is hitting .275/.390/.517 with 12 home runs, 13 doubles, and 27 RBI, hitting four long balls with nine RBI along with a .284 average in the month of June going into Wednesday’s game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
Contreras is hoping to not only make it to his third MLB All-Star Game but also make his third start in the midsummer classic. The catcher was voted the starter for the game in 2018 in Washington DC and in 2019 in Cleveland.