Jonathan Aranda an All-Star? It's a Unanimous Yes in Rays Clubhouse

Tampa Bay first baseman Jonathan Aranda has been one of the best hitters in baseball all season, and he's very deserving of making the All-Star team. His teammates have his back for sure. Aranda will find out next Sunday if he's heading to Atlanta.

Tampa Bay's Jonathan Aranda (62) has made his case for making the American League All-Star team. He'll find out next Sunday. | Peter Aiken-Imagn Images

BALTIMORE, Md. — The question in the postgame clubhouse to Tampa Bay outfielder Jake Mangum was about Jonathan Aranda's massive 467-foot home run, but his answer instantly steered in another direction.

He zigged instead of zagged.

“Can we get him to Atlanta, please? Please. Like, golly, he is so good,'' Mangum said, referring to the upcoming July 15 All-Star game in Atlanta. "Watching him every day, and I’m on deck sometimes, and watching him hit, it’s fun to watch that dude swing a baseball bat. I don’t know how you can pitch him. If I’m a pitching coach, I don’t know how to get him out. He’s one of the most pure hitters I’ve seen in the game, and he’s got pop.

“I’m new to all this, and I don’t know how the voting works in detail. But Jonathan Aranda should be in Atlanta, and I would love to hear the debate as to why he shouldn’t be. He absolutely deserves it.’’

The debate on why he shouldn't be in the game is pretty lame right now. He has All-Star credentials for sure, hitting .330 with 10 home runs, 44 RBIs and a .919 OPS.

But he wasn't part of the top two first basemen in the All-Star voting, which has come down to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays and Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees. Fan voting is never fair to small-market teams, because there are 40 million people voting in Canada voting for Guerrero, and 20 million more Yankees fans in New York and around the country.

There might be 50,000 true Rays fans, and that's probably a stretch.

But there are still a few more layers to making the All-Star team, with players making selections and the league picking players to fill out the requirement of having at least one selection from each team.

So it's still fairly likely that Aranda will be there. It would be a crime if he wasn't, Rays pitcher Zack Littell said.

 "I’ve said it a bunch of times that it’s almost not impressive (what he's done in the first half) because we expect him to do all these things,'' Littell said Saturday in the Rays' clubhouse. "He deserves to be an All-Star because he’s continued to hit all year. Even his cold streaks are one hit a night instead of three, it seems like. He’s incredible.

"There aren’t many guys in the game who have done what he’s done, and I’m looking forward to watching him over the break. I think as a player, you know all the guys around the league. Anyone who’s plays against us, which is almost the entire league at this point, has seen him hit. The players know the guy should be in, but you also see the list, and you see his numbers, whether it’s the league or the players, I hope they get him in.’’

Rays manager Kevin Cash has been very vocal on what Aranda means to his team.

“(He means) quite a bit (to the Rays) just with the consistency of the at-bats,'' Cash said. "It’s kind of like that pure hitter who can beat you with a really good at-bat, who can go the other way, and then knock the ball 450 feet when it gets the right pitch.’’  

Aranda did that Saturday, ripping a 467-foot home run on to Eutaw Street beyond the right-field wall at Camden Yards. It was the third-longest homer ever in the iconic ballpark since 2006, the start of the Statcast era. It was also the third-longest Rays homer anywhere, and he had his teammates in awe.

“The third-longest home run in Camden Yards history, that’s a lot of really good ballplayers who played here — like Rafael Palmeiro,'' Mangum said of his fellow Mississippi State alum who was an Orioles legend and hit 124 home runs at the park built in 1992. "It’s fun to watch, and that's even cooler it was the third longest in Rays history.’’

The rest of the All-Star teams will be selected next Sunday.

“I’m happy. I’m very appreciative of all the people that voted for me, but there are also other All-Stars that deserve that,” Aranda said. “I’m aware of how the system works, and whatever God decides, that’s what’s going to be.

“It would be something big,” he said. “Being an All-Star is something that everybody dreams about. And it would be a legacy in my career.”