Guardians' most attractive Steven Kwan trade partner emerges in recent rumors

This week has largely been a  celebration of the Guardians’ front office thanks to José Ramírez agreeing to a third-straight below-market extension that will hopefully allow for the Guardians to put a winning team around him. 

And while that celebration has been great (and gave us a generational quote from Ramírez), that joy will quickly turn into misery if the Guardians don't follow that extension up with some other moves.

And it's clear that the biggest move they can make is to sign Steven Kwan to a contract extension.

While the Guardians had no shortage of interested teams when they listened to offers on Kwan at the trade deadline and Winter Meetings, the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays have stood out as the three teams with the most interest in trading for Kwan, which makes sense given all of those teams have aggressive front offices. 

It looks like it’s time to add the Mets to that list.

On Friday, The Athletic’s Will Sammon published a story that provided an inside look at the Mets’ offseason and all the twists and turns that came with it. And one of those twists nearly involved Kwan. 

About halfway through the story, Sammon included a paragraph highlighting some of the outfield targets who were “in play” for the Mets, where Kwan was listed among the targets. 

Although Sammon added a line that said the “likelihood of acquiring” the outfield targets varied, the Mets being interested in Kwan could lead to a scenario in the near-future where Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns puts together a godfather offer to try to trade for Kwan. 

The Mets seem ready to throw their hat in the ring for Steven Kwan 

When it comes to any potential Kwan deal, the biggest thing that seemed to be a roadblock in trade talks with him in the past eight months was the potential return — or lack thereof. 

The Guardians’ asking price for Kwan at the deadline was a multi-player return that started with a premium prospect, and it’s hard to believe they’ve changed in their stance since. 

That could end up being a huge roadblock for the Mets given their aggressiveness this offseason. While the Mets entered the offseason with a top 10 farm system, they traded away prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to the Brewers in exchange for Freddy Peralta before dealing two more prospects away for White Sox outfielder Luis Robert.  

The Mets responded to a disappointing 2025 season by trading getting rid of Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso while adding Robert, Peralta and Bo Bichette. 

It’s easy to imagine the Mets’ interest in Kwan not being as intense as it normally would thanks to Robert being available and not costing as much in terms of prospect capital. 

But that won’t be the case at the trade deadline, so Guardians fans should begin preparing themselves to see Kwan’s name connected to the Mets throughout the summer.