Miami Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. advances to Phase 2 of All-Star Game voting

Jazz Chisholm Jr. is one step closer to being named an All-Star.

Assuming, of course, he’s healthy enough to participate should he be selected.

The Miami Marlins’ budding star finished among the top-two of National League second basemen in Phase 1 of All-Star Game fan voting, the first step in determining who will be the starting position players for the All-Star Game, which takes place July 19 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Now, the NL second base spot is a head-to-head battle between Chisholm and the Atlanta Braves’ Ozzie Albies.

Albies narrowly beat out Chisholm in Phase 1 voting with 1,745,859 votes versus 1,731,805 for Chisholm. The New York Mets’ Jeff McNeil was third with 1,476,471 votes.

Phase 2 voting begins Tuesday at noon and runs through July 8. Fans can only vote one time per day this time round at MLB.com. Vote totals from Phase 1 do not carry over to Phase 2.

The All-Star starters will be announced on July 8 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

The pitchers and reserves for both teams — 23 players for each side — will be determined via player ballot choices and selections made by the MLB Commissioner’s Office. The full All-Star rosters will be announced on July 10 at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Chisholm leads NL second basemen in OPS (.860), slugging (.535), home runs (14), triples (four) and RBI (45) while also having 12 stolen bases and 39 runs scored.

However, it’s worth noting that both Albies and Chisholm are currently injured.

Albies has been sidelined with a fractured foot, while the Marlins placed Chisholm on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with a right lower back strain. He has been dealing with the injury since Friday.

The earliest Chisholm can be activated from the IL is July 9, 10 days before the All-Star Game.

“If everything would go good, as soon as 10, 12, 14 days, something like that,” manager Don Mattingly said of Chisholm’s possible return.

“I don’t know exactly the treatment plan, what they’ll be doing, [but] I know that they’ll have some sort of plan,” Mattingly continued. “Rest is kind of the old school way of like, ‘Rest it, and it’ll get better.’ Maybe partially, but nowadays, it’s a lot more strength and condition it, strengthen around it, that type of thing. It happened for some reason, right? I think that’s what you find out. I can speak personally on that one. It happens for a reason, and then you have to do the work and you strengthen the core, has to get strong to be able to protect it. That’s what happens to a lot of guys.”