Guardians add intriguing outfielder to roster in place of Steven Kwan 

Earlier this week the Cleveland Guardians placed Steven Kwan on the bereavement medical emergency list, which will keep him out for anywhere from the next three to seven days. 

While Kwan isn’t the leadoff demon that he’s been in years prior, he’s still an important piece of the roster who impacts the game in a ton of ways. 

And the Guardians chose to replace his spot on the roster on Friday by calling up outfielder Stuart Fairchild, who had been tearing it up in the minors prior to getting the call. 

Stuart Fairchild has entered the Guardians’ outfield equation 

Fairchild played in 40 games this year at Triple-A Columbus and posted a .289/.417/.479 with five home runs and 15 RBI while also racking up 26 walks and nine steals. 

Fairchild’s the prototypical outfielder in that he gets on base at a high clip and won’t lose you a game with his defense, but he’s not going to set the world on fire. 

The best stretch of his career was a two-and-a-half year stretch with the Reds from 2022 to ‘24 where he slashed .232/.316/.403 with 18 home runs and 64 RBI in 229 games. He appeared in 28 games with the Braves last year but hit just just .216 before being designated for assignment in the middle of July. 

He was scooped up by the Rays but was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain before playing in a game for them. 

Fairchild played in just 10 spring training games for the Guardians thanks to his time playing for Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic, where he hit .250 across four games with two home runs — one of which was a grand slam. 

He’s not in the starting lineup today but it shouldn’t take long for him to appear in a game thanks to that strong skillset. He could have left the Guardians after he didn’t make the team out of spring training, but he elected to stay in Columbus instead of pulling the trigger on the mobility clause in his contract. 

The biggest thing to watch will be whether his stay on the roster will be temporary or something more permanent. 

The Guardians added him to the 40-man roster by moving Gabriel Arias to the 60-day injured list (which is mostly just a clerical move since he’s been out since April), but would need to free up another 26-man roster spot to keep him once Kwan’s back. 

An obvious choice would be Petey Halpin, who’s been serving as the team’s fourth outfielder but is hitting just .120. Fairchild provides a bit more offense than him and can hit lefties (.746 OPS). There are worse options to use that spot on. 

It seemed like a matter of time until Fairchild made his debut given his MLB experience, but it always seemed like he’d have to wait until some kind of injury to get that opportunity.

While he’s not guaranteed much given Kwan’s time on the bereavement list has a clear end date, he still may get enough of a chance to stick on the roster.

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