Steven Kwan spent the opening months of this season fighting through the kind of slump that can make even a proven veteran start questioning everything about his game. The two-time All-Star was on pace for a career worst year through the first three months, a stretch bad enough that Cleveland moved him out of the leadoff spot for the first time since 2022, giving him a brief break while he searched for answers. What followed has turned into one of the more remarkable turnarounds of the season, and Kwan opened up about exactly what it took to get there.
Kwan described the internal battle that came with watching his production disappear despite feeling like little had actually changed in his approach.
“You fight the struggle of, ‘OK, it doesn’t really feel like anything’s changed that badly, but clearly nothing is working right now.’ You basically have to shrug off all of those doubts inside and just try to figure out how you can get better, how you can help contribute,” Kwan said. “You want baseball to be this merit-based kind of thing, where you work hard, you get good results. This made me feel proud because I stuck to my routines.”
The numbers behind his turnaround are almost hard to believe given where things stood in June. Kwan posted a batting average barely above .200 with an on base percentage in the same range through his first 78 games of the season. In the 63 games since, he has hit well over .350 with an on-base percentage approaching .450, production that leads all of baseball since the start of July. His overall wins above replacement for the season now sits at its highest mark since 2022, and his walk rate has climbed to a career high as well, all while he continued playing his usual elite defense in the outfield.
On the field, the fix ultimately came down to going back to basics. After spending the offseason trying to tap into more pull side power, Kwan found himself getting overwhelmed by pitches up and away, and his production suffered as a result. Rather than continuing to force an approach that was not working, he returned to the identity that made him an All Star in the first place, working counts, using the whole field, and trusting his contact skills and plate discipline rather than chasing power numbers that were never the foundation of his game.
Kwan’s resurgence has become one of the biggest reasons the Guardians find themselves in position to make another deep run this October.
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