Kwan story in the Athletic

Watched Kwan play last week. Made a great play in center. Then tagged one oppo about ten feet from leaving the yard. If anybody in front of him struggles, He likely gets a chance this year.

It's looking more and more likely he makes the opening day roster. Cleveland fans are really falling for him. Helps when you bat almost .500 in spring training. 
I'm so happy for Steven, he was one of my favorite players to ever play for the Beavs. Looking like alot of former Beavers in the show this year.

Pasting since it's behind a paywall:

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Steven Kwan stands almost completely upright, holding his bat parallel to his body, with the knob facing the dirt in the batter’s box. When the pitcher initiates his delivery, Kwan raises his front leg as if he’s attempting to kiss his knee.

It’s a series of movements crafted in what the Guardians call the “capture cage,” a lab where coaches and analysts study swing mechanics and partner with the hitter to determine tweaks or overhauls at the plate.

Kwan wields a couple of qualities that are difficult, or even impossible, to teach: hand/eye coordination and strike zone awareness. Those traits granted him a head start in the mad dash to become a prolific hitter. He makes a lot of contact and he doesn’t chase pitches out of the zone. So, he rarely strikes out (about once every 11 plate appearances as a professional).

That skill set can carry a player far, perhaps even to the majors. But when Kwan arrived at spring training a year ago and conferenced with the organization’s hitting development team, they agreed he could benefit from a swing that allowed him to whack the baseball with more authority. Making a lot of contact is great. Making a lot of hard contact — resulting in line-drive doubles to the gap instead of weak grounders to second base, for instance — is better.

Many big-league pitchers are adept at inducing weak contact. If Kwan poses a power threat, though, given the frequency with which he works himself into hitters’ counts, he could inflict damage.

“The power comes from having an efficient swing,” he said. “I’m never trying to hit the ball farther. It’s just a byproduct. If I ever get tense or try to muscle up the ball, it actually becomes less efficient for my body. So having that same mentality of trying to hit line drives up the middle, line drives to the left side, it translates into power.”

Grant Fink, Cleveland’s minor-league hitting coordinator, said the group was even willing to sacrifice some of Kwan’s contact ability, trimming a few points off his batting average to gain extra credit in the slugging column. Turns out, they didn’t have to sacrifice anything.

Kwan in 2019 at High A: .280/.353/.382 slash line, 9.8 percent walk rate, 9.4 percent strikeout rate

Kwan in 2021 at Double A/Triple A: .328/.407/.527 slash line, 10.6 percent walk rate, 9.1 percent strikeout rate

Kwan quadrupled his home run total in 2021 (from three to 12) in about 60 percent of the plate appearances. And he did so while slightly improving his walk and strikeout rates (and against better competition).

That’s how a 5-foot-9 outfielder with solid but unspectacular numbers in A-ball in 2019, who lost a minor-league season to the pandemic in 2020, zoomed on to evaluators’ radars in 2021, on to top prospects lists this winter (nearly on to Keith Law’s Top 100 list at The Athletic) and, even, into Eno Sarris’ bold predictions piece as the 2022 American League Rookie of the Year.

“That’s funny,” Kwan said. “Super validating. But he doesn’t know who I am. There are going to be a lot of scenarios this year that could happen. I could get hurt, for all we know.”

OK, so while he might be confident, he’s also humble. He’s “curious” and “cerebral,” too, according to Fink. He’s welcoming of any data and video the coaches send his way.

Kwan, Fink and Alex Eckelman, the organization’s director of hitting development, workshopped his swing for about three weeks last spring. A few games into the trial, he crushed a pitch to dead center at a 104 mph exit velocity, something he says he had never done before.

“I knew I had something on my hands,” he said.

Kwan said he tested out a new stance every year. For the first time, there’s no learning curve in that area this spring. He used to have a toe tap. Then, variations of a toe tap.

Now, he has a leg lift, a timing mechanism that prepares him for the pitch headed his way as he shifts his weight into a position that provides him with more power. As he describes it, he stays “stacked” in the back leg, sets up his hips and then funnels his momentum forward.

And in common terms? The swing mechanics help him stay stable as he swings and generate more power from his lower half instead of relying on his hands to do the work.

The big change, though, is in the mindset, Fink said. It’s the idea that when Kwan is ahead in the count, he can take more risks, versus a defensive-minded approach.

“Get your swing off,” Fink said. “If you make contact, let’s see the ball go. … It was more of a mentality switch than a mechanical switch. When a guy gets aggressive in his mind, you’ll see it in his body.”

The Guardians have targeted hitters with similar profiles in recent years in an effort to improve their hitting development fortunes. Tyler Freeman, Owen Miller, Richie Palacios and even Josh Naylor to an extent have minor-league track records that include a lot of contact and walks, and strikeout rates ranging from more-than-reasonable to elite.

Kwan is perhaps the extreme example, a guy who rarely swings and misses, and also rarely expands the zone. That should allow him to swing at only the pitches he wants, so if that swing carries some extra oomph, his production could soar.

“I never want to strike out,” Kwan said. “I never want to get beat.”

Boras is telling teams that Conforto injured his shoulder diving for a ball earlier in the year.  However, it is being rumored that he injured it doing something crazy at a bachelor party.  The injured shoulder is why he hasn't signed.

I was going to say that I thought that he was good enough to make the Opening Day Roster, but I am no expert on how that plays into the years of control issue that plays a lot into these decisions.