The Cleveland Guardians’ offense has shown some fight over the past few weeks thanks to the consistent greatness of Jose Ramirez and the emergence of young bats such as Chase DeLauter, Angel Martinez, and George Valera. There is a lot for the fan base to get excited about, and hopefully the others who have started slow at the dish can turn things around soon and join the party.
One of those slow starters has been Steven Kwan, who has a disappointing .604 OPS through 97 at bats thus far. It has represented a concerning trend of his batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and overall power decline year over year for the third consecutive year.
In a recent article from Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt recently defended his star outfielder and touched on the difficulty of Kwan moving from left to center field this season. He reminded fans that it is something he has never done before, but doesn’t believe it is the reason he is struggling at the plate.
“I don’t think moving between left and center field has affected his offense,” said Vogt. “It’s the newness of playing center field. I don’t think it’s affected his bat by any means, but it’s a new workload that he’s never had in the big leagues.
Kwan got a rare day off on Friday in the team’s series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays. It was just his second day off of the young season and Angel Martinez hit a pair of homers in his place in center field, while Daniel Schneeman stayed hot in Kwan’s leadoff spot with another homer of his own.
It was a strong rebound performance by Cleveland’s offense after getting shut out in the series finale against the Houston Astros on Wednesday. A struggling bullpen also had a great day with three scoreless innings in relief of Gavin Williams, who was scuffled to the tune of six earned runs over six innings.
Kwan hasn’t hit over .300 in a calendar month since last May. It has gotten to the point where fans are valid to be genuinely concerned about his bat, and it’s fair to wonder if he’ll ever get back to the near-.800 OPS threat he was in 2024.
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