This Guardians player is in danger of All-Star snub after latest voting update

Last year, Steven Kwan earned his first career All-Star Game nod and helped propel the American League to a 5-3 win over the National League. 

He’s going to need some help if he wants to get there again this year. 

On Monday, MLB revealed the newest update to this year’s All-Star voting, where Kwan is currently fifth in the American League outfield vote, putting him dangerously close to missing out on a chance to earn a spot to this year’s Midsummer Classic.

This Guardians player is in danger of All-Star snub after latest voting update

As mentioned above, Kwan ranks fifth in the outfield voting after Monday’s update, where he trails Aaron Judge, Riley Greene, Javier Báez and Mike Trout. Judge is tracking to be the top vote-getter in the American league, which makes the next four outfielders (a list that includes Kwan) would advance

Kwan is about 70,000 votes behind Mike Trout, who holds the fourth place spot. The Tigers’ Riley Greene and Javier Báez hold the No. 2 and 3 spots, respectively. 

While Judge is deserving of the top spot among American League outfielders, Kwan is arguably having a better season than Greene, Báez or Trout.

Both Greene and Báez have helped the Tigers to the top spot in the American League Central (Báez has especially been a revelation after being a negative-WAR player last year), which seems to have energized Detroit’s fanbase in a way where they’ve wanted to have their voices heard. 

Trout’s presence on that list is more on his reputation than production, as he’s only been worth 0.2 bWAR this year and missed a good chunk of the season with a left knee injury. That said, he leads all active players with 11 All-Star appearances, so his selection would be a legacy honor more than anything else. 

That said, Greene has been worth 2.2 bWAR and Báez has been worth 2.3 bWAR, while Kwan has been worth 3.2, which is tied for ninth in the American League. 

Although Kwan isn’t having as good of a first half as he had last year when he was flirting with a .400 average in the middle of June, he’s still authoring another solid season in left field for the Guardians.

He’s slashing .307/.367/.431 on the season to go along with six home runs, 24 RBI and 10 stolen bases, so he’s still as productive at the plate. That said, his defense has taken a bit of a turn this year, as he’s been worth -3 Outs Above Average in the field after being worth four last year.

That said, he’s still in the 100th percentile in arm value, so it hasn’t been all bad.

Further up the ballot, José Ramírez is on pace to easily cruise to the seventh All-Star nod of his career, as he leads the AL third base voting by more than 500,000 votes.

Ramírez is hitting .323 this year (which would be the highest full-season batting average of his career) to go along with 13 home runs, 36 RBI and 20 steals, and has been a stabilizing force for the Guardians’ streaky offense. 

We’ll have to wait and see if Kwan will join him in Atlanta.