Steven Kwan’s name has been a frequent feature of Cleveland Guardians trade rumors for more than a year.
The reasoning hasn’t always been the same, but the conceptual outcome would’ve been — Cleveland trading away their Gold Glove left fielder and contact-heavy lefty hitter.
At times, it seemed simply a matter of moving Kwan’s contract at the right time.
At other times, there was more of a baseball reality to it, that Kwan’s contact skills may not have been up to snuff anymore in the Guardians’ lineup.
Whatever the reason, though, it’s certainly something that Cleveland baseball fans have gotten to keep hearing about. For more than a year, Kwan’s name has been in the rumor mill.
Soon, though, it’s going to be a now-or-never kind of situation for the Guardians.
Steven Kwan Trade Update Has Clear Timeline
The Guardians try to trade players when their contracts are getting near the end, because Cleveland doesn’t always have the ability to sign their players to market-value contract extensions.
Kwan is shaping up to be the latest.
The 2027 season will be his last under contract with the Guardians, and while a potential lockout would complicate things, that timing means a Kwan trade would make sense now.
That’s what MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand wrote in a new article on Thursday looking at upcoming trade candidates.
“The two-time All-Star has been dangled as a trade candidate in the past, and with only one year remaining until free agency and no extension seemingly in sight, Cleveland could look to move Kwan to bring back younger, more controllable talent,” Feinsand writes.
The key idea there is “controllable talent.” Cleveland would be hoping to find someone that, like Kwan, they’d get to enjoy for a handful of years before potentially following a similar pattern.
Whatever team the Guardians would find to trade with would probably want to know Kwan had interest in a contract extension in his new home before pulling off a deal. Otherwise, it’d be hard to acquire a lot of club control for Cleveland in exchange for one year of Kwan.
“Kwan’s counting stats are down this season (two home runs, 27 RBIs, 72 runs scored in 136 games), but his .371 on-base percentage and 4.4 bWAR are his highest since his 2022 rookie season, and he ranks in the top 10 percent of the league in strikeout percentage, walk percentage and Outs Above Average,” Feinsand writes.
A Complicated Offseason
Of course, as mentioned above, a potential lockout could make this tough.
If the owners and the players association can’t come to a simple agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, it could be a long winter ahead.
And if that’s at the forefront, no one is going to be making any sort of bold moves. Teams will want to know what the new parameters are first.
Kwan could end up stuck in limbo before the final year of his contract. Given all the persistent rumors in the last year or so, though, it still wouldn’t be a total surprise to see Kwan traded before his contract in Cleveland runs out.
Guardians’ Steven Kwan Trade Plans Take Shape