Guardians Player Is Quietly Having An Elite Stretch

A regular MLB season lasts 162 games. Many people, mainly outside of the game, think that’s too much. Those familiar with the league and the game, however, understand the reasons behind the long calendar.

It’s impossible to determine which team is the best of them all over a single month, or 30, or even 90 games. You need as many as possible for patterns, stats, and circumstances to stabilize over time.

Imagine the Los Angeles Dodgers losing faith in Shohei Ohtani just because he had a rough first couple of months, or fans quitting on Fernando Tatis Jr. because he didn’t hit a home run for almost two months. Those who know and understand the game know that you have to play a lot to let people adjust and adapt, and for the stats to sink in. For what it’s worth, the Ohtani scenario is fake, but the Tatis one is real. It happened. And he’s firing on all cylinders now.

The Cleveland Guardians had to experience a rough start to the season from Steven Kwan, their longtime leadoff hitter. He had a horrible 80 wRC+ in the first half and looked lifeless at the plate for months. Not weeks, months. The team had to be very patient, but he has turned his year around and is looking like his old self again.

Kwan made a list of 10 players who experienced slow starts and then turned around their fate. He was joined by Tatis, Alex Bregman, Bryson Stott, Caleb Durbin, Trevor Rogers, Eury Perez, Noah Cameron, Brandon Pfaadt, and Kyle Leahy.

“Kwan has been such a consistently good player in the Majors that it was downright shocking to see him struggle through the end of June. Then, Kwan abruptly turned his season around and has been the second-best player by WAR since July 1, only trailing Pete Crow-Armstrong in that department. He’s posted a ludicrous .370/.473/.464 slash line despite hitting just one home run during that time, and has walked 27 times compared to just 16 strikeouts,” Brent Maguire wrote.

Through the end of June, the two-time All-Star had a .575 OPS, one home run, and 0.3 WAR in 78 games. Since then, he is at a .937 OPS, with another homer and 2.3 WAR in 40 games.

Kwan had been so bad in the first couple of months that he lost his leadoff role in mid-May. Well, he has hit well enough to get it back and looks better than ever at the moment.