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The 2025 season has not gone according to plan for the Cleveland Guardians. Despite their 5-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, they remain a long way back of the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central standings, making it likely for them to be a selling ballclub prior to the 2025 MLB trade deadline. And one of the Guardians players drawing plenty of interest on the trade market is leadoff hitter and left fielder Steven Kwan.
Kwan, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, is triggering a bit of a bidding war between the two best teams in the NL West in the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. The Dodgers and Padres have an arms race going on between the two of them, and the former, especially, appears to be in need of an upgrade at left field.
At present, the Dodgers are starting Michael Conforto at left field. Conforto was signed this past offseason to a one-year, $17 million deal but hasn't been good at all in LA. He's currently slashing .196/.309/.344 on the season — numbers that aren't exactly what LA would expect from someone they targeted early on in free agency.
Kwan would be a major upgrade over Conforto in nearly all facets of the ball. While Conforto is more of a power producer than Kwan is, Kwan is the better defender, baserunner, and all-around hitter. The Guardians left fielder walks more often than he strikes out, making him a major weapon atop any team's lineup, even one as stacked as the Dodgers'.
Meanwhile, the Padres are relying on Gavin Sheets to start for them at left field. While Sheets hasn't been bad (in fact, he has hit 14 home runs and driven in 52 runs already this season), Kwan would be a major improvement.
Guardians to sell off developmental success story in Steven Kwan?
Kwan is someone every MLB team would want to have. He was selected in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft, worked his backside off to rise through the ranks in the Guardians' minor-league system, and since breaking through as an everyday player in 2022, he's been nothing but productive.
He is on pace for the third four-WAR season of his career (via Fangraphs), and is a major developmental success for a Guardians team that needs unheralded players like him to establish themselves as everyday players. Kwan has two years left of team control left as well, so the Guardians can definitely hold on to him next year and trade him for a good package if push comes to shove once more.
