Guardians Skipper Commended Steven Kwan for 2026 Season

Steven Kwan will look back on his 2026 season with the Cleveland Guardians and see his first-half and second-half stats that tell two different stories. He may even look at the season as evidence that trying too much at once doesn’t guarantee immediate improvements.

For manager Stephen Vogt, Kwan’s season will be a testament to the player's resilience and strength.

Kwan’s stats were one of Cleveland’s biggest storylines through the first half of the season. One of the best contact hitters in baseball lost his ability to get a hit, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Guardians even moved Kwan back down in the batting order to hopefully take some pressure off Kwan and give him more opportunities to be at the plate with runners already on base.

That temporary change worked, along with everything Kwan did behind the scenes.

In the second half of the year, Kwan returned to the form that earned him an All-Star nod in the previous two seasons. Kwan was back to being Cleveland’s leadoff hitter and recorded a .353/.443/.432 after the All-Star break.

Vogt noted that many baseball players wouldn’t recover from such a rough start and would simply label it a lost season. However, Kwan prevailed and found his way back to the elite hitter who made him so successful early in his career.

Not only that, but Kwan didn’t let his performance on the field impact who he was in the clubhouse, and that’s not something easy to do.

“I have to really commend Steven on his season,” Vogt said last week.

“The first few months, most players would crumble. Most players would fade. 
And most people would change how they're interacting with their teammates and people around them. None of those things happened with Steven.”

Cleveland’s skipper also noted that, in the grand scheme of things, Kwan is still a relatively young player. He just wrapped up his fifth season, but those years have brought plenty of adjustments at the plate, and pitchers have adapted to him as a hitter.

Kwan isn’t a 15-year-veteran. Yet, as Vogt pointed out, it’s an unfair judgment that Kwan has earned, given how well he’s hit so early in his career.

The Guardians are in an interesting spot with Kwan as he’s coming down from such an up-and-down year, but ending on such a high note. The 29-year-old is entering his final year of team control

Still, Chris Antonetti insisted last week that he expects Kwan to be a part of the team’s lineup in 2027.

At this point in Kwan’s career, he is who he is, and the second half of 2026 proved that; Kwan is an elite contact hitter who can get on base at a high rate and jump-start a lineup as their leadoff hitter.

That’s definitely a player worth keeping around long term.