Steven Kwan’s name has been floating around in trade rumors of late as the Cleveland Guardians’ season has teetered on the edge of falling off a cliff over the past month or so.
Still, it was nice to see him make headlines for better reasons as he delivered a huge hit to tie up the All-Star Game earlier this week.
Kwan has received some criticism for his performance due to playing in the game through a wrist injury, which has since kept him out for the first two games after the break despite receiving an injection the day after the All-Star Game to help deal with the pain.
Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com recently shared some insight from Kwan into his decision, and the two-time All-Star said that he wanted to do it for the fans and tried to be as responsible as possible during the festivities to avoid aggravating his injury.
“I wanted to play with the best in the world,” said Kwan. “They fully supported me on that. I really appreciate it and I wanted to be responsible about it. I just played in the game (two at-bats as a defensive replacement). I didn’t do any BP (batting practice). I just stood out there for the shagging and stuff.”
As Kwan said, he didn’t do anything too drastic during the game that would have obviously put him at risk of further injury, and all signs are pointing to him returning very soon.
Kwan has been one of the only bright spots on offense for the Guardians this season, along with Jose Ramirez, and the two of them represented the Guardians well at All-Star weekend, even though Ramirez made the wise decision to rest his nagging ankle injury so he was ready to go for the second half.
Kwan had been in a skid for the past month, so the hope is that when he does return, he’ll be back to playing like the two-time All-Star that he is.
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