Crazy Steven Kwan stat makes his rough start to Guardians' season seem like ages ago

On May 23, Steven Kwan went 0-for-3 against the Philadelphia Phillies. In years prior, that kind of outcome would have been an anomaly for Kwan, who routinely ranked among baseball’s best at getting on base. 

That wasn’t the case at the start of this season, however, as that hitless outing against the Phillies dropped Kwan’s batting average to .196. Not only did it look like Kwan was playing his way out of the Guardians’ future, but it also seemed like there was a chance they could consider the nuclear option and cut him loose during the season. 

But then a funny thing happened. He got some hits. A three-hit game the next day in the series finale. A two-hit game against the Yankees on the first day of June. Seven hits in three games against the Pirates in the middle of June. 

Pretty soon the Guardians were winning, and Kwan was back to being a force at the top of the lineup. 

When Kwan walked back to the dugout after grounding out in his final at-bat on May 23, it looked like it was going to be a lost season for both him and the Guardians. 

When Kwan digs into the batter’s box later today against the Red Sox, he’ll do so with the 11th-best on-base percentage in MLB (.378) for a Guardians team that has a Magic Number of 2. 

If Kwan is able to keep things up, it’s out of the realm of possibility that he could finish the season in the top 10 in on-base percentage. Not bad for a guy who spent the first two months of the season as one of the worst qualified hitters in baseball.

The Guardians are a much more dangerous team now that Steven Kwan is back to being productive

It’s not an understatement to say that Kwan’s return to form has helped push the Guardians back into the postseason picture. He was an easy out early in the season, and it got so bad the Guardians moved him out of the leadoff spot for the first time since he was thrust into the spot after he made his debut in 2022. 

The craziest part of the whole process is that Kwan didn’t change a ton about his process — he just wasn’t doing the things that helped turn him into an on-base machine.

It seems like his change was much mental as it was physical (though it also seemed like he shifted his focus to peppering the ball all over the outfield as opposed to trying to pull the ball). 

Regardless of what it was, it seems clear that Kwan is back. His .324 batting average in the 97 games since that hitless performance against the Phillies is tied for the best mark in MLB while his .410 on-base percentage is third. 

Williams has been a mainstay atop the Guardians’ lineup in all three of their postseason appearances since he made his big league debut. 

Although we don’t know when the Guardians are going to make their postseason debut this season, we know that Kwan is going to be atop their lineup when they do. And they’re going to be better for it.

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