How many Washington Nationals will make NL roster for 2017 MLB All-Star Game?

In the latest update on the voting for the 2017 NL All-Star roster, Ryan Zimmerman, Daniel Murphy, and Bryce Harper led at their respective positions.

Zimmerman was leading Chicago Cubs’ first baseman Anthony Rizzo by 127,362 votes.

Murphy was up over 1.4M on the Cubs’ Javier Baez at second base, and Harper led all NL outfielders by 501,714 votes.

Anthony Rendon was a distant fourth place in the voting amongst third basemen with 779,468 votes, behind the LA Dodgers’ Justin Turner (1,075,524), the Colorado Rockies’ third baseman Nolan Arenado (1,920,610) and the Cubs’ Kris Bryant (1,978,692).

Washington Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo talked last month, in his appearance on 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s The Sports Junkies, about how many Nats could end up on the NL roster.

The Junkies mentioned that Zimmerman, Harper, and Rendon seemed like they were good possibilities, with pitchers Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Gio Gonzalez likely to receive consideration.

“If I had to guess, I don’t know,” Rizzo said, “because I’m sure they don’t want to have seven Nationals on an All-Star team. But it’s happened before.

“We have seven players that I believe deservingly so could go to the All-Star Game. The guys that you mentioned, I think have to get consideration. Anthony Rendon is having a terrific season, kind of under the radar season, that he needs to be considered an All-Star.

“We have seven quality players that are All-Star-caliber that in many, many years those guys will make the All-Star team.

“I’m not sure how many guys will make it this year, you know how the voting goes and the way the players and managers they pick the reserves. But those guys are all deserving.”

Dusty Baker was asked last week if the opportunity to play in front of the Chicago Cubs’ and National League’s All-Star manager Joe Maddon might give them a good opportunity to make a last, good impression.

“Probably not,” Baker said. “Cause he’s probably got some pretty good ideas already.

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“But it’s not all Maddon’s choice. Some of it is the players’ choice, some of it is how many guys aren’t on — I’ve been in that situation and it’s a very tough decision and choice to make, because you’ve got fans voting, you have players voting, you have the need for one guy to be on a team, it might be a pitcher that’s not as deserving as one of yours, or somebody else’s.

“I’ve been there as a player, twice, a couple times, where Sparky Anderson picked his guys, but then they had more autonomy to do that then, than now. And then one time Chuck Tanner picked a lot of his guys, and one time in LA we had too many guys, seven guys, and they didn’t want to have eight, so there’s a lot of factors that go into it and quite frankly, it’s a very tough decision for Joe Maddon, it’s not all his decision, but he’s the one that has to answer for it.”

The American and National League All-Star rosters, and Final Vote candidates are going to be announced at 7:00 PM EDT tonight on the "Esurance All-Star Selection Show" on ESPN. Tune in and find out how many Nationals will be going to Miami next week, then watch the Nats and Cardinals wrap up their three-game in St. Louis at 8:05 PM EDT on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.