The Cleveland Guardians haven’t gotten the production it has needed from the lineup in 2025 to be consistently competitive, which is a big reason why the team has been hovering around .500 for weeks.
While the offense has been the biggest issue, the defense has taken a major step back as well, even with two-time All-Star outfielder Steven Kwan leading all left fielders in one impressive defensive stat.
Analyst Thomas Nestico shared on X that Kwan leads all left fielders with +13 defensive runs saved, with Wyatt Langford of the Texas Rangers a distant second at +9.
Defensive Runs Saved Leaders – Left Fielder pic.twitter.com/ORW05vZscD
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) August 1, 2025
Kwan is well on his way to winning a fourth consecutive Gold Glove award to begin his career, which is something only Nolan Arenado and Ichiro have ever done.
Angel Martinez and Nolan Jones have gotten the majority of Cleveland’s reps in center field and right field, and both have graded out poorly on defense by nearly every advanced metric.
Kwan’s name was mentioned everywhere in trade rumors leading up to the trade deadline, but Cleveland thankfully decided to hold on to its star left fielder and will now hopefully look to continue building around him for the future.
Contact hitting and defense aren’t the biggest priorities leaguewide in this day and age, but there is still a ton of value in having a player who excels in both aspects.
Kwan is a unique baseball player, and Guardians fans are lucky he is still in Cleveland, hopefully for many more years to come.
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