Steven Kwan collects lone hit in loss to Rays

Kwan will get a breather with tough left-hander Shane McClanahan on the hill for the Rays. David Fry will mat left field in his place and will bat fifth on Friday night at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay.

Over his last 25 games, Kwan is hitting .329/.417/.425 with 10 runs scored and three steals. The power was never really something you were banking on from him, but his run totals should increase now that he has retaken his spot at the top of the order. If you need batting average and runs in your fantasy legaue, Kwan is back on the radar.

Kwan is almost certainly past his peak as a player, but his expected stats have gotten better as the season has gone alone; they were terrible in April, but not nearly as bad in May and June and they’ve continued to trend up in July. The Guardians are still batting him ninth for now, which subtracts from his already limited fantasy ceiling, but there’s a decent chance that he’ll return to the leadoff spot and perform as an adequate fourth or fifth outfielder in mixed leagues the rest of the way.

No surprise as Kwan will be spared from having to face Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. That honor goes to Stuart Fairchild instead. The 28-year-old has put together an abysmal season overall, but he went 2-for-4 with an RBI during Friday’s series opener and is hitting .281 (9-for-32) in nine games since returning from bereavement leave earlier this month.

Kwan has completely collapsed with the bat, so it’s time to find new and more interesting ways to reach base. Alas, catcher’s interference doesn’t help with his OBP. He’s still at a respectable .323 there, but he’s batting .213 and slugging .262. He tried a squeeze bunt tonight, but the pitcher got to it quickly and was able to tag the runner coming down base line. His current hard-hit rate is 8.5 percent. Of course, that’s never been a strength of his, but it’s still less than half of his career mark of 20.4%. To put it in perspective, the only player in the Statcast era to qualify for the batting title and finish with a sub-11 percent hard-hit rate was Billy Hamilton, who came in at 8.5 percent in 2018.

Kwan returns to Cleveland’s lineup, patrolling left field and hitting seventh on Tuesday night against the Yankees, after being away from the club for a couple games on bereavement leave. The 28-year-old has struggled to an underwhelming .207/.329/.259 triple-slash line with 25 runs scored, one homer, 12 RBI and two steals in 234 plate appearances over 54 games.

Kwan is expected to miss at least the team’s weekend series against the Red Sox. The Guardians will announce a corresponding roster move prior to Friday’s series opener.

According to The Athletic’s Zack Meisel, Kwan has been dropped from Cleveland’s leadoff spot for the first time since June 18, 2022. The 28-year-old outfielder has been scuffling this season as a massive decline in average exit velocity has led to a disastrous .201/.308/.258 slash line with one homer and two steals in 187 plate appearances through 42 games. He went 0-for-4 during Friday’s series opener. It’ll be Daniel Schneemann taking over atop manager Stephen Vogt’s lineup card. The hope for fantasy managers is that the move sparks something and Kwan is able to revert to form. His lengthy track record suggests that he’ll turn things around, but the underlying batted ball metrics are alarming so far.

Kwan continues to struggle this season, slashing .206/.311/.265. His hard-hit rate is down to 9.5 percent, and his average exit velocity has fallen to 82.4 mph. He’s still making a tremendous amount of contact and not chasing outside of the zone at all; however, he may be too passive overall. Kwan’s swing rate has fallen by six percent, and he’s swinging at pitches in the heart of the strike zone almost eight percent less than last year while taking four percent more called strikes overall. This feels like the same hitters we’ve come to know but just one whose being too passive and second-guessing himself. We expect Kwan to snap out of his funk, but for Wednesday, David Fry will play left field and bat fifth.

Kwan also went 0-for-4 on Sunday, so he’s back down to .217/.311/.279 for the season. He’ll surely get that average up in time, but he might not do well enough in any other category to be more than a fringe fantasy outfielder.