Cleveland Guardians All-Star outfielder Steven Kwan has lost his superpowers. He went from playing in the 2024 and 2025 Midsummer Classics to hitting .211 with a .256 slugging percentage over 315 plate appearances this season.
His 70 wRC+ is well below the league average of 100, and he only has one home run and three stolen bases in three months of play. His career-high 12.7 percent walk rate has been the only positive aspect of his stat line to this point.
It’s hard to be a productive hitter when you are swinging so weakly, though. Kwan has never been known for his power, but what we have witnessed in 2026 has been historically bad.
In fact, he has the third-lowest hard-hit rate in the Statcast era since 2015. Analyst Mike Petriello has the data.
“Man, Steven Kwan is going through it. In the entire history of Statcast, min 250, the lowest hard-hit% in a season,” Petriello said.
Man, Steven Kwan is going through it. In the entire history of Statcast, min 250, the lowest hard-hit% in a season: https://t.co/E5WgR46C66 pic.twitter.com/NIOTV2K6ZA
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) June 30, 2026
For reference, a player’s hard-hit rate is basically the percentage of balls that leave the bat at 95 mph or more. The harder a ball is hit, the harder it is to field, so doing this consistently is related to offensive success.
Kwan, however, is not only posting the worst hard-hit rate in the league this year among qualified hitters at 10.3 percent, but it’s also the lowest since Billy Hamilton’s 2019 campaign. Hamilton, of course, was a speedster with little offensive value. It’s not a good comp.
Kwan routinely finishes among the worst hitters in baseball when it comes to bat speed, but he is dead last in 2026 with an average swing speed of 62.9 mph.
Before 2026, Kwan made it work. His career wRC+ is actually an above-average 108. Unless he is hiding an undisclosed injury, his woeful offensive play this year is baffling and hard to explain. Of course, being bad at something, in this case bat speed and hard-hit rate, is not the same as being the absolute worst in the league.
Kwan needs to turn around his season, and he needs to do it soon if he wants to retain his place in the starting lineup and on the roster. The Guardians are waiting out the situation, but their patience is definitely not infinite.
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