SAN FRANCISCO — Once upon a time, Steven Kwan was a pitcher. A pretty good one, too.
During his days at Washington High School in Fremont, the Cleveland Guardians star was primarily an outfielder, the position he now plays daily in the majors. Then one day, Washington needed another starter on the mound.
“It was awesome,” Kwan told the Bay Area News Group. “I loved it. I pitched in travel ball all the time before that, and then got stuck in the outfield. We had some roster stuff where we had lost a pitcher at one point, and I figured I’d pitched before, try it again, and had some good results. Honestly, one of my favorite high school games was me pitching. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
In a rivalry game against Kennedy of Fremont his senior year, Kwan threw a complete-game shutout, allowing two hits and striking out 10 as Washington won 5-0 in March 2015.
“He battled,” Washington coach Mike Sewell said last week. “I know we’ve got footage of this somewhere, but he had this funky delivery. It’s almost like his hitting, where he had this leg kick where his knee would come up to his belly. Then he’d do a little twist, and he would just fire. And he had a great fastball and a killer, killer curveball.”
Kwan was clocked at 85 mph in high school, a higher velocity than the 83 mph managed by Hayward native and Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who would have attended Washington but moved to Arizona in middle school. Things have changed since then – Skubal’s max velo is now 102.6 mph, which he used to strike out Guardians shortstop Gabriel Arias on May 25.
Against the Giants on Tuesday at Oracle Park, Kwan showed off his arm by doubling Casey Schmitt off second base with a 89.7 mph strike right to the bag. Kwan’s fastest recorded outfield throw was 93.9 mph in 2023.
“He didn’t know that Kwanny is a crazy quick release guy,” Sewell said of Schmitt.
Steven Kwan flashes his defense as a sophomore outfielder for Washington-Fremont High School, making a diving catch against James Logan in March 2013. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Kwan has turned his strong arm into an asset at the big-league level, but for Washington High, it was a necessity. Starting pitcher Zach Wallace, who would later go on to play at San Jose State, went out with an ailment, and Kwan stepped in to fill the void.
“He filled in for our ace at the time,” Sewell said. “Zach got a nasty hamstring injury, and Steven said he would step up for the betterment of the team. We didn’t get him all the time. It wasn’t like every Friday he was our guy. But he gave us what he could give us without jeopardizing his college prospects.”
Kwan was originally recruited by Oregon State, his college home, after then-Beavers pitching coach Nate Yeskie went to a showcase to watch highly touted pitching prospect Michael Kopech. Kwan wasn’t pitching at that event, and Oregon State didn’t recruit him as a pitcher, but the idea of stepping onto the mound came up a few times once he traveled up to Corvallis.
“I had talked to Nate, and I said, ‘Hey, did you guys ever think about it? Did you ever see him throw?’” Sewell said. “He goes, ‘You know, there were a couple times he got on the mound and he would throw, and it was a topic.’ But they didn’t want to jeopardize his offensive performance by having him pitch.”
Kwan was more succinct about the potential of his pitching career.
“I was 5-8 since I was like 13,” Kwan quipped, “so that was never a thing.”
Being an outfielder has worked out OK. After a stellar junior year at Oregon State where he slashed .355/.463/.457 with 117 total bases, Kwan was drafted by Cleveland in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft.
After reaching the big leagues in 2022, he established himself as the game’s best defensive left fielder, winning three consecutive Gold Gloves, and was named an All-Star for the first time in 2024.
The Guardians’ Steven Kwan catches a fly ball hit by the A’s Max Schuemann during a game in Cleveland on April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Cammett)
Succeeding quickly was also a hallmark of Kwan’s high school career. His rise to stardom began when Kwan was a freshman looking to make Washington’s varsity team, and he showed off uncommon attributes for a young player.
“We had our open fields, and those were a little cage work, running around the outfield, throwing,” Sewell said. “Right away, that was the first thing we noticed is he had great arm strength as a freshman. Then we saw him hitting, and it was like nothing got by him.
“It was my first year as a head coach, and I inherited a senior-laden team. But I was like, ‘Man, he’s definitely our second-best outfielder by far.’ He was only beaten out by our captain at the time, who was really good.”
Playing right field, Kwan hit .250 as a freshman while getting his feet wet. By the time he was an upperclassman, he raked, hitting .489 as a junior and .462 as a senior and showing off the uncommon feel for making contact that has carried him to success at the highest level.
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“It was just a lot of fun,” Kwan said. “Growing up as a person. I got to make varsity as a freshman, and there were maybe 10-plus seniors on the team. So that was my first introduction to being around older kids, especially like three years older. So it was always a lot of fun. Good memories. Met my best friends there. It was always a good time there.”
Kwan’s Washington teammates showed up to watch him face the Giants, and they were rewarded with a three-hit day and run scored on Thursday to go along with his game-changing defensive play on Tuesday.
As he enters the next phase of his career, Kwan does so knowing that those he grew up with at Washington are fully behind him – even if they can’t resist poking a little fun from time to time.
“He was goofy,” Sewell said. “He would be super goofy. But when it came time to play, super dialed in. It’s phenomenal to see a player his size go out there and do it every single day. It’s great because it shows how great baseball is. You don’t have to be Aaron Judge’s size to be an All-Star.”
Kwan currently ranks fourth in American League All-Star fan voting among outfielders, trailing Judge, Riley Greene and Mike Trout.