Kris Bryant won't play in All-Star Game, ends Final Vote in 2nd

Kris Bryant won’t play in All-Star Game, ends Final Vote in 2nd

By Madeline Kenney

Kris Bryant slips on his sunglasses during a recent Cubs workout in Arizona. (John Antonoff/For the Sun-Times)

Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner beat out Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant in the National League Final Vote after leading it for the majority of the time.

Bryant finished second in the poll, meaning he’ll miss the All-Star Game for the first time in his three-year career.

He left the clubhouse Thursday before the announcement was made.

The Cubs are the first World Series winner not to send a player from the championship roster to the All-Star Game the next season.

Closer Wade Davis, who wasn’t a member of the team in 2016, is the Cubs’ lone representative. Last year, the Cubs sent seven players, five of whom started.

Manager Joe Maddon said this week that he couldn’t make an argument for more representation.

“I can’t defend my guys based on other guys that made the team at this point,” Maddon said. “If you just look at the numbers plus our injuries, there’s no way for me to make a strong argument.

“For as much as you want to promote your own guys, and I would and I do, it came down to, if you look at the numbers head-to-head, it was hard for me to make any argument.”

Bryant is the first reigning MVP not to make the All-Star Game since the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins in 2008.

Bryant’s numbers haven’t been up to the standards he set in previous seasons. He’s hitting .261 with 16 home runs and only 34 RBI.

The Final Vote seemed to draw more desperation by teams than in years past. The Cubs and Bryant’s wife, Jessica, put on some stealthy social-media campaigns.

The vote grew frantic in the three days that balloting was open. The Cubs were one of four teams to offer signed merchandise to fans who shared their tweets, which counted as votes.

The Dodgers, desperate to get Turner into the game, went as far as offering the chance to throw out a ceremonial first pitch if fans retweeted their accounts.

But the NL teams didn’t go to the extreme that Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius did. He paid for commuters’ subway fares, gave away umbrellas and made burritos for New Yorkers.

Follow me on Twitter @madkenney.

Email: mkenney@suntimes.com