Is Guardians' Steven Kwan In A … Slump?!
Steven Kwan has been one of baseball’s best hitters this season and he’s one of the main reasons that the Cleveland Guardians are one of the best teams in the big leagues this year. However, Kwan is facing his first real test of the season as he searches for his swing over his last few at-bats.
Dare we say he’s in a … slump!?
Perhaps the word "slump" is a stretch. But for Kwan’s standards, yes, he is going through a little bit of a rough patch right now.
Over the last seven games, Kwan is hitting just .233/.258/.500 and he snapped an 0-for-8 skid on Thursday night which was his longest stretch of at-bats without a hit all season.
The one area that has been very uncharacteristic for Kwan is his struggles over the last week when hitting with runners in scoring position. This was evident in Cleveland’s 2-1 loss to the Royals where Kwan had two opportunities (one in the second inning and one in the fifth) to drive in runs but came up short.
It’s still important that we put all of this in perspective though. Kwan still has a batting average of .373 on the season and a slash line of .397/.474/.629 over his last 30 games.
Just because Kwan has shown he’s human over the last week doesn’t mean we need to overreact or get worried about his swing. He’s still only struck out three times in his last 63 plate appearances which demonstrates his super-human presence in the box.
Kwan’s plate production may not be what we’re used to seeing from him lately, but there’s no reason to be worried about him either.
TOMMY WILD