Padres, Phillies showing interest in three-time Gold Glove winner

The Phillies and Padres are two of the many teams that have expressed interest in Steven Kwan, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Both National League contenders are known to be looking for a left field upgrade.

Kwan would be one of the top hitters on the market if the Guardians made him available. Heyman suggests that Cleveland is willing to consider offers, but is understandably setting a high asking price. ESPN’s Buster Olney wrote on Tuesday that the Guardians are unlikely to pull the trigger on a Kwan trade. The two-time All-Star is under arbitration control for another two seasons. He’s playing this year on a bargain $4.175M salary.

Phillies left fielders are hitting .190/.302/.339. Most of that falls on offseason signee Max Kepler, who has not performed as expected on a $10M deal. Kepler carries a .207/.305/.372 slash with 11 home runs in 328 plate appearances. He has also expressed some frustration about the Phils shielding him from left-handed pitching, though it’s not as if he has forced his way into the lineup with his production. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Phillies tried to move Kepler in a change-of-scenery trade.

That might happen even if the Phils can’t land a bigger bat. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski shed some light on the team’s thought process with outfield prospect Justin Crawford on Monday (link via Matt Gelb of The Athletic). Dombrowski indicated that the 21-year-old Crawford, who is hitting .326/.406/.424 with 29 stolen bases in Triple-A, is on the radar for an MLB promotion. That might wait until after the deadline, however, as the Phils don’t want to call Crawford up only to option him back to the minors if they trade for an everyday outfielder.

“The one thing, if you’re bringing Justin Crawford up at this point, he needs to play,” Dombrowski told reporters. “So that’s the main thing. So we need to kind of just sort out our own situation here and see when he comes up that he’s going to be a guy that’s playing all the time.” Crawford could theoretically push Brandon Marsh out of center field even if the Phils were to acquire a left fielder. There’d be a clearer path to plugging him into left while pushing Kepler to the bench or off the roster entirely if they don’t land an external upgrade.

San Diego planned to open the season with a Jason Heyward/Connor Joe left field platoon. Neither player made it on the roster through the end of June. Gavin Sheets has taken over as the left fielder. The lefty-hitting Sheets has had a strong year at the dish, batting .257/.319/.433 with 14 homers. He has hit a skid this month, though, and he profiles better defensively at first base or designated hitter.

Kwan is one of the best all-around left fielders in the sport. He has won the Gold Glove in each of his first three big league seasons. He’s been an average or better hitter in each year, including a .285/.348/.393 slash in 415 plate appearances this season. Kwan has walked more often than he has struck out in each of the past two seasons. He doesn’t have huge power but has the high-OBP skillset that makes him an ideal leadoff hitter.

As a small-market club, Cleveland tends to be broadly open to considering offers on any player aside from José Ramírez. Each of Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith and Shane Bieber has come up in trade rumors as well. They’re certainly not locked into selling, however. The Guardians have won three straight and eight of their past 10 to climb back to .500. They’re within 2.5 games of a Wild Card position pending tonight’s results. They have two more games against the Orioles before heading to Kansas City for a weekend series. They’ll host the Rockies for three in their final set before the deadline.