Outfielder Steven Kwan opened the season as the Cleveland Guardians’ leadoff hitter, as he has since his rookie year in 2022. He got off to a slow start, which then snowballed into a rough first half overall.
By May 16, manager Stephen Vogt made a tough decision: he decided to pencil Kwan, who was hitting .201 with a 66 wRC+ up until that point, in the sixth spot to give him a mental break from leadoff duties. It was, in many ways, a lineup demotion, and it continued well into the summer.
From that date until July 18, Kwan spent most of the time hitting sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth, with a couple of leadoff starts sprinkled in. It wasn’t until July 19 that he officially won back his spot at the top of the lineup.
That’s the best word for it: he earned it. From June 23 until the last Sunday of the regular season, Kwan showed the world what he’s capable of: he hit .345/.433/.429 with a 151 wRC+ and finished the year with a solid, above-average .282 batting average, a 114 wRC+, and 3.8 fWAR.
The outfielder revealed the thought process he experienced after that lineup demotion.
“Full disclosure, when I got dropped down, I kind of just resigned myself to, like, ‘okay, like that could be the last time I ever lead off a game’, and that’s okay to me… I was able to kind of just see the game from a different perspective, and I think a lot of those things helped to get me back to where I needed to be,” Kwan said, per Mason Horodyski of News 5 Cleveland.
"Full disclosure, when I got dropped down, I kind of just resigned myself to like, 'okay, like that could be the last time I ever lead off a game', and that's that's okay to me… I was able to kind of just see the game from a different perspective, and I think a lot of those… pic.twitter.com/vUnlYtw62h
— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) September 30, 2026
Kwan was, initially, pessimistic about his chances of ever returning to a role that was his since he was a rookie. He said it himself. However, that doesn’t mean he stopped working, because he never did. In fact, his offensive output started to improve with time, and having the support of his manager helped.
In the end, the demotion was something of a wake-up call for him. It allowed him to see the game, as he says, from a different perspective, and it played a role in helping him relax at the plate and do his thing. Once he got hot, Vogt returned him to his familiar spot, and he never stopped hitting.
It took a lot of time and patience, but Kwan is back to his best and is ready to take on the Chicago White Sox in the Division Series.
NEXT: Insider Reveals Potential Downside Of Guardians’ First-Round Bye
