Steven Kwan (born September 5, 1997) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

for the

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022. Born and raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, Kwan played three years of college baseball at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

before being selected by the Cleveland Indians in the fifth round of the

2018 MLB draft The 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In a ...

. He was a member of their minor league system for four years before making Cleveland's Opening Day roster in 2022, quickly becoming a part of their starting lineup, playing all three outfield positions. Following the conclusion of his rookie year, he earned a Gold Glove Award for his defense in left field and was a finalist of American League Rookie of the Year.

Amateur career

Kwan attended Washington High School in

Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...

, where he batted .462 as a senior in 2015. After graduating, he enrolled at

where he played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

. As a freshman in 2016, he played in 35 games in which he hit .215. In 2017, as a sophomore, he appeared in 55 games (making 42 starts), batting .331 with one home run, 18 runs batted in (RBIs), six doubles, and eight stolen bases. After the 2017 season, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Wareham Gatemen The Wareham Gatemen are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Wareham, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Gatemen play their home games at Clem Spillane Fi ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. As a junior in 2018, Kwan played in 66 games and hit .355/.463/.457 with two home runs, 41 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases. After his junior year, he was selected by the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

in the fifth round of the

2018 Major League Baseball draft The 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In a ...

Professional career

Minor leagues

Kwan signed with the Guardians organization when it was still known as the Indians, made his professional debut with the

Arizona League Indians The Arizona Complex League Guardians are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, competing in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. The team is c ...

and was later promoted to the

Mahoning Valley Scrappers The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They are located in Niles, Ohio, a city in the valley of the Mahoning River, and play their home games at Eastwood Field. From 1999 to 2020, they were a M ...

, hitting a combined .346 over 17 games between the two clubs. In 2019, he played with the

Lynchburg Hillcats The Lynchburg Hillcats are a Minor League Baseball team in Lynchburg, Virginia that plays in the Carolina League and is the Single-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They were a farm team of the Atlanta Braves from 2011 to 2014, the Cincinna ...

, batting .280 with three home runs, 39 RBIs, and 26 doubles over 123 games. He did not play a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Kwan began the 2021 season with the

Akron RubberDucks The Akron RubberDucks are a Minor League Baseball team based in Akron, Ohio. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They play in Canal Park, located in downtown Akron, which seats 7,630 ...

and was promoted to the

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy Merchant ship, mercha ...

in late August. He missed six weeks during the season due to a strained right hamstring. Over 77 games between the two clubs, Kwan slashed .328/.407/.527 with 12 home runs and 44 RBIs. The newly named Cleveland Guardians selected Kwan to their 40-man roster on November 19, 2021.

2022 - Rookie season

On April 2, 2022, the Guardians announced that Kwan had been named to the Opening Day roster. He made his MLB debut on Opening Day as the starting right fielder on April 7, and recorded his first major league hit off

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

reliever Scott Barlow. After making his debut, he became just the sixth player since at least 1901 to have a five-hit game within his first three major league games, and also became the first player since at least 1901 to reach base safely 15 times in his first four games. He saw 116 pitches before he swung and missed, the most for any batter to start his career since 2000. Kwan was named

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

Rookie of the Month for April and September 2022. He hit his first major league home run on May 5 off of

José Berríos José Orlando Berríos (born May 27, 1994), nicknamed "La Makina" (Spanish for "The Machine"), is a Puerto Rican professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Minnesota Twins, ...

. In 2022, Kwan had the lowest percentage of hard-hit balls in the majors (18.9%), the highest called-strike percentage in the majors (24.5%), and batted .298/.373/.400 with six home runs, 52 RBIs, 19 stolen bases, and 25 doubles alongside 62 walks and 60 strikeouts over 147 games. Kwan's 62 walks compared to 60 strikeouts made him the first rookie to record more walks than strikeouts since

Dustin Pedroia Dustin Luis Pedroia (born August 17, 1983) is an American former professional baseball second baseman who played his entire Major League Baseball career for the Boston Red Sox, from 2006 to 2019. He was a four-time All-Star, and won the Americ ...

in 2007. On defense, Kwan was awarded the American League's left field

Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

. He was named a finalist for the

American League Rookie of the Year Award In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is given annually to two outstanding rookie players, one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL), as voted on by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The aw ...

, alongside

Adley Rutschman Adley Stan Rutschman (born February 6, 1998) is an American professional baseball catcher for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball for the Oregon State Beavers. He was named the Pac-12 Conference Playe ...

and Julio Rodríguez.

International career

Kwan will play for Samurai Japan in the

2023 World Baseball Classic The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international professional baseball tournament, is set to be the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It was originally set for 2021 (as per tradition to hold the event every four years), but wa ...

Personal life

Kwan is of Chinese and Japanese descent.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwan, Steven 1997 births Living people People from Los Gatos, California Baseball players from California Major League Baseball outfielders Cleveland Guardians players Gold Glove Award winners Oregon State Beavers baseball players Wareham Gatemen players Arizona League Indians players Mahoning Valley Scrappers players Lynchburg Hillcats players Akron RubberDucks players Columbus Clippers players American baseball players of Chinese descent American baseball players of Japanese descent