Steven Kwan has played four full seasons with the Cleveland Guardians, and all four have yielded a Gold Glove Award in left field.
In a perfect world, he would occupy the position in which he has been so successful for as long as he remains effective there.
We don’t live in a perfect world, though.
Center field is a position that the Guardians just haven’t been able to fill adequately in the last few years.
According to Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal, the Guardians center fielders have a combined fWAR of 11.9 over the last 10 years, the lowest in MLB over that span.
They are also next to last with an 82 wRC+, per Lewis.
This is where Kwan, with his career 112 wRC+ and his average of 3.78 fWAR per season, can help change the outlook of the position.
The Guardians have been experimenting with the All-Star outfielder playing some center this spring, and frankly, that’s where he should be in 2026.
That alignment would allow the Guardians, whose outfielders have struggled mightily in recent seasons, to field a pair of young, promising, and above-average offensive outfielders: George Valera in left and Chase DeLauter in right.
Valera, who has 20-homer power, had a 114 wRC+ last year in Columbus and a 113 mark in 16 games with the Guardians’ big league team.
DeLauter is arguably the team’s most promising position player, along with Travis Bazzana, and he shouldn’t be playing too much center field to minimize the risk of injury associated with the position.
In fact, the team hasn’t said it publicly, but they view DeLauter as a classic right fielder.
Kwan, who has been mostly healthy in his MLB career to this point, is still in his prime at 28.
He is not an athletic freak, but his smarts and respectable legs can help him play an adequate center field for at least a couple of years if he’s on board, of course.
No, Kwan probably isn’t a Gold Glove-caliber center fielder, but in the interest of adding some much-needed offensive punch, having him in center optimizes the Guardians’ lineup and gives it more upside.
After all, if the Guardians want to go far, they need to produce more runs, plain and simple.
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