Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan embodies hard work and resilience. After years of being a well above-average leadoff hitter, he slumped badly in the first half and posted an 82 wRC+, well below the standards he had set for himself since making his MLB debut in 2022.
As a result of his struggles, he was moved out of the top of the lineup, and people started to question his place in the team’s long-term plans. However, he kept working in silence, and his dedication paid off.
After a brilliant second half, Kwan took his wRC+ to an excellent 114 and ended up hitting .282 with a career-high .382 on-base percentage.
The dynamic contact hitter is entering his last season of salary arbitration and will be a free agent after the 2027 campaign. The Guardians have to make a crucial decision on Kwan, as team insider Tim Stebbins explains.
“The first questions are how they view a player in Kwan’s situation, and whether there is any potential urgency surrounding a player with a ticking contractual control clock. With a player in Kwan’s position, Cleveland has often weighed its long-term options. Among them are continuing the partnership with a key contributor, with the risk of losing him in free agency one year later, and mulling a trade to recoup future value. Left unsaid with the former is the potential to work out a contract extension,” Stebbins wrote.
The Guardians have refrained from trading Kwan for years, but they also haven’t extended him. That leaves them with three options: pursuing a trade now or at the deadline, keeping him for one last season before he hits the open market, or extending him.
There is no clue as to what the enigmatic Guardians will do. When a player reaches this stage, they usually flip him to avoid losing him for nothing in a year. It happened recently with Josh Naylor, and there are many other examples.
Kwan, however, is a two-time All-Star and a four-time Gold Glove Award winner in left field. Additionally, he showed this year that he is a capable center fielder, too.
Regardless of his future, Guardians fans came to really appreciate Kwan in the second half, after they saw how hard he worked to rebound. He has been one of the best Guardians of the last five years.
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