Cleveland Guardians center fielder Steven Kwan has had a nightmarish year at the plate. The perennial All-Star has been dropped to ninth in the batting order, has seen his batting average barely hover over .200 for over a calendar year now, and has lost the power and base-stealing acumen he displayed over the last year or two.
Perhaps the shift to center field had a negative impact on Kwan’s offense, but it’s tough to know for sure whether that had any impact. One thing that is for sure is that his defense hasn’t suffered from moving over from left field, as his most recent highlight reel play is generating quite the buzz on the internet.
GuardsTV shared a replay of Kwan’s outstanding throw in Saturday’s win over the Miami Marlins. In the third inning, Kwan fielded a ground ball single from Xavier Edwards with runners on first and second, and instead of attempting to gun down the runner heading for the plate, he sneakily launched a missile behind the trailing runner, Kyle Stowers, who was tagged out before the run crossed the plate.
“We’re running out of words to describe Steven Kwan’s defense,” GuardsTV posted
We're running out of words to describe Steven Kwan's defense.#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/Zq953AGOZ6
— GuardsTV (@GuardsTV) July 11, 2026
It’s the type of play you almost never see, but it worked beautifully as Kwan was able to go after the slower runner who clearly wasn’t expecting a play at second base. It’s not at all where outfielders are taught to throw the ball in those situations, but when you’re a perennial Gold Glover like Kwan, you earn the benefit of the doubt to go rogue like this once in a while.
The stellar play kept the game scoreless, and just like countless other times in baseball, the guy who made the defensive gem came up big the next inning at the plate. Kwan got the Guardians on the board with a two-run double in the fourth inning, which was all the offense the team needed on this day.
Kwan has shown some signs of life at the plate over the last two weeks and has hits in 13 of his last 16 games, raising his batting average from .206 to .221 in the process with a 1.005 OPS in the month of July thus far. Maybe with a few days off at the break, his bat can catch up to his glove and his arm and the fans can start to see more of the perennial All-Star that they fell in love with these past few years over the second half of this season.
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