The Cleveland Guardians were tangled up in rumors at the trade deadline.
They ultimately made a couple of moves, including trading pitcher Shane Bieber to the Toronto Blue Jays.
However, contrary to what the rumors said, they held on to Steven Kwan.
Nevertheless, Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report predicted that the Guardians will eventually trade the All-Star outfielder.
“Had Steven Kwan not been such a pervasive name on the trade block in late July, this wouldn’t make much sense. Cleveland was in the ALCS just last October and is right there in the wild-card mix this year, which simply isn’t your standard candidate for a ‘looking to turn the last two years of team control on one of our best players into a package of prospects’ type of swap. Nevertheless, the reports were that they were pretty aggressively shopping him right up until the deadline, so it seems as though they just aren’t that interested in spending what will probably be around $20M over the course of the next two seasons on a guy they probably wouldn’t (be able to) re-sign after 2027,” Miller wrote.
Kwan is one of the best players in baseball, and there’s not an immediate financial incentive to trade him.
The fact that the Guardians didn’t deal him at the deadline despite reportedly getting an appealing offer from the San Diego Padres speaks volumes about the way they feel about him.
They’ve reportedly been trying to sign him to a contract extension for months, but to no avail.
Yet, they have more than enough time to get that deal done, so they did the right thing by not rushing into any move.
Even so, if months go by and they don’t get the feeling that he’s ultimately going to sign a long-term contract extension, they might have to reconsider their stance and potentially test the market again.
Whatever the case, they can’t afford to take less than his value in any trade.
He’s still under team control, so if they finally end up trading him away, they need to get the best offer.
NEXT: 2 Guardians Pitching Prospects Are Turning Heads In Minors
