MLB All-Star voting update: Kyle Schwarber and more stars who are getting snubbed

The first MLB All-Star Game voting update is here, and as expected, the returns prove that the voting is mostly a popularity contest.

Yes, in most positions, the fans got it right. For example, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani leading their respective leagues in votes makes a ton of sense. Rewarding breakout superstars like Cal Raleigh and Pete Crow-Armstrong was encouraging to see.

With that being said, there are a couple of massive snubs in each league that simply need to be talked about. These are the biggest ones worthy of more All-Star Game consideration than they received in the first round of voting.

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American League All-Star voting snubs: Rays teammates get short end of the stick

Jonathan Aranda, 1B

Jonathan Aranda is having one of the most under-the-radar breakout years of the MLB season for the Tampa Bay Rays. He enters Monday's action slashing .319/.411/.491 with eight home runs and 39 RBI in 66 games played. An argument can be made that he should be leading the AL All-Star voting among first basemen, and yet, if the voting ended today, Aranda wouldn't even advance to Phase 2 of the voting. That's insane.

Aranda leads all qualified American League first basemen in average, OBP, OPS, WRC+ (162) and fWAR (1.9). I get that Paul Goldschmidt plays for the New York Yankees and he's a deserving All-Star with the year he's had, but what is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doing ahead of him?

Guerrero ranking ahead of Aranda proves that this really is just a popularity contest. I'm not here to say Guerrero has had a bad year. He has a .790 OPS and a 121 WRC+, proving that he's been rock solid for the Toronto Blue Jays. However, in virtually no metric has he performed better than Aranda has this season, making his ranking above Tampa Bay's first baseman utterly insane.

Brandon Lowe, 2B

It isn't surprising to see the Rays, a small-market team playing its home games this season at a minor league park, getting no recognition, but it's disappointing. Aranda should be getting more votes than he has so far, and the same can be said for his teammate, Brandon Lowe.

Admittedly, Lowe's numbers don't jump off the page at all. He's slashing .257/.309/.447 with 13 home runs and 37 RBI in 66 games this season. When comparing his production to other AL second basemen, though, Lowe deserves to have more votes than he does.

Gleyber Torres leads the way, and deservingly so. Jackson Holliday being the other second baseman to advance to Phase 2 after the first round of voting, though, is a head-scratcher. Holliday has had a nice year and is proving he belongs at the MLB level, but he ranks below Lowe in just about every important metric.

Lowe leads all AL second basemen in home runs, runs scored, and RBI while ranking second in WRC+ (116), second in OPS (.756), and third in fWAR (1.2). Holliday ranks below Lowe in all of these statistics. I get that he's Matt's son and a former No. 1 prospect, but c'mon.

National League All-Star voting snubs: Blockbuster trade puts Kyle Schwarber in tough spot

Kyle Schwarber, DH

Kyle Schwarber's odds of winning the fan vote at the DH position in the National League are always going to be zero for as long as Shohei Ohtani is healthy, but he seemingly had a great shot of being the second player to make the final cut. Well, the Rafael Devers trade throws a major wrench in that. He and his nearly 800,000 votes moved to the NL at the DH spot and placed him behind Ohtani and ahead of the rest of the field, including Schwarber, by a wide margin. Schwarber's odds of advancing to Phase 2 are incredibly slim now, but even with Devers in the mix, they shouldn't be.

Ohtani will and should run away with the top spot, but that doesn't mean Schwarber isn't having a season to remember. In fact, he might be having his best season, which is saying a lot. The 32-year-old is slashing .247/.379/.544 with 22 home runs and 52 RBI in 71 games played. His numbers are as good as advertised when being compared to other NL designated hitters.

Schwarber ranks second in home runs, WRC+ (155), OPS (.923), and fWAR (2.0) among all NL designated hitters. Why Seiya Suzuki, a DH who ranks below him in all of these categories, is ahead of Schwarber is beyond me, but Devers probably shouldn't be ahead of him either. Schwarber has more home runs and has a higher WRC+ than Devers. Perhaps with Devers now in the NL, the votes will even themselves out more in the next update - we've seen Philadelphia Phillies fans come out in droves to support their players before, but the new Giants' DH has a massive lead as of now.

James Wood, OF

This one is pretty shocking. I get that James Wood plays for a subpar Washington Nationals team, but he's one of the most dynamic players in the game. The fact that he isn't among the top six NL outfielders in terms of votes is hard to fathom.

Wood is slashing .280/.373/.534 with 17 home runs and 49 RBI in 71 games this season. He ranks third among NL outfielders in home runs, fifth in fWAR (2.8), and he leads the league in OPS (.907) and WRC+ (152). I can understand having Pete Crow-Armstrong, a legitimate MVP candidate on a popular team ahead of him, but why is Wood ninth among all outfielders?

What Ronald Acuña Jr. has done since returning from the IL has been unreal to watch, but he's played in 21 games. He has no business being ahead of James Wood. Juan Soto has done a nice job rebounding after a rough start, but he has no business being ahead of James Wood. Teoscar Hernandez is a tremendous run producer, but he has no business being ahead of James Wood. I can go on, but won't.

Wood has more of an argument for leading the pack among NL outfielders than he does for being left out of the top six entirely. Hopefully, this corrects itself in the next round of voting.