Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers aggressively pursuing Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan
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The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers are two teams aggressively pursing the services of Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan.
According to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic, Kwan is getting «a ton» of interest from the Blue Jays and Dodgers as the trade deadline approaches.
Kwan is having another strong season, with a .287/.351/.411 slash line in 443 plate appearances along with nine home runs and 11 steals (in 13 attempts).
This translates to a 115 wRC+ that is below the 131 wRC+ Kwan posted in 2024, though his bat has started to come alive after a lengthy slump that stretched through June and into early July.
2 home runs for Steven Kwan 💪 It's all tied up in Cleveland!
The acquisition of Steven Kwan would be a huge boost for the Toronto Blue Jays down the stretch
Kwan's usually Gold Glove-caliber left field glovework is also down to a -1 in the view of the Outs Above Average metric, but the Defensive Runs Saved metric still has him at an elite +13 over 853 2/3 innings in left field.
A drop in walk rate could explain some of the slight offensive decline, as Kwan's BB% is roughly league-average after being solidly in the 65th percentile or better over his first three MLB seasons.
However, the book on Kwan is pretty set at this point. Kwan almost never strikes out, and thus his sheer volume of contact and quality speed has allowed him to be a plus offensive player despite having very little power and a distinct lack of hard contact.
Between this production and the fact that Kwan is arbitration-controlled through the 2028 season, it is easy to see why so many contenders are checking in on his availability.
As Rosenthal notes, a case can be made that Kwan would be the best all-around position player available at the deadline.
Cleveland has dropped to 52-54, and sit nine games behind the Tigers for first place in the AL Central and four games back of the Red Sox for the final AL wild card slot.
The Guards were further rocked by yesterday's news that Emmanuel Clase has been placed on administrative leave due to a league investigation related to sports betting.
This would be an amazing addition to an already great Blue Jays lineup, if Ross Atkins can pull this off, Blue Jays fans will rejoice.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 29 | 183 ANSWERS Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers aggressively pursuing Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan Do you think the Toronto Blue Jays will trade for Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan? | ||
| Yes | 72 | 39.3 % |
| No | 111 | 60.7 % |
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