{"id":296998,"date":"2025-07-29T21:51:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/29\/phillies-trade-target-could-be-a-game-changer\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T21:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:51:42","slug":"phillies-trade-target-could-be-a-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/29\/phillies-trade-target-could-be-a-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies&#8217; trade target could be a game-changer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With left fielder Max Kepler struggling, the Philadelphia Phillies are reportedly among teams interested in dealing for Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan.<\/p>\n<p>In early July, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/phillies\/mlb-trade-deadline-rumors-phillies-needs-bullpen-outfield-20250704.html\" target=\"_blank\">per Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski dismissed the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/top-phillies-executive-hints-team-120000900.html\"\/>idea of acquiring another outfielder, noting that all outfielders on the market were struggling. But his stance apparently has changed.<\/p>\n<p>With closer Emmanuel Clase <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/mlb\/articles\/guardians_executive_opens_up_about_emmanuel_clase_investigation_what_comes_next\/s1_13132_42511792\" target=\"_blank\">on mandatory leave<\/a>, the Guardians (52-54) may be sellers before Thursday&#8217;s trade deadline (6 p.m. ET).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/mlb\/articles\/guardians_all_star_of_drawing_interest_from_several_world_series_contenders\/s1_13132_42515064\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic&#8217;s Ken Rosenthal,\u00a0<\/a>\u201c(Kwan) is drawing \u2018a ton\u2019 of interest, according to a club source, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres believed to be among the teams in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Kwan is on the trading block, expect fierce competition for his services. Entering play Tuesday, the 27-year-old leftfielder is hitting .287\/.351\/.411 with nine home runs and 11 steals. His .287 average (22<sup>nd<\/sup> highest in baseball) would be the second highest on the Phillies, behind only SS Trea Turner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In four big-league seasons, Kwan has batted better than .290 twice. His .351 on-base percentage this season, while impressive, is his second-lowest mark, falling just short of his career .357 OBP.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kwan <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/steven-kwan-680757?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" target=\"_blank\">rarely whiffs or strikeouts,\u00a0<\/a>landing among the best in both categories every year since his debut in 2022. His -1 outs above average this season doesn\u2019t offer a significant improvement to the Phillies&#8217; scuffling outfield defense, but he is a plus defender, winning Gold Gloves (three) every year of his career. Kwan is under contract through 2027, which would make him a fixture for the near future of any team that lands him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the Phillies were to acquire him, Kwan would replace Kepler, who signed with Philadelphia in December but has disappointed. He has a slash line of .205\/.301\/.361 with 11 home runs.<\/p>\n<p>For the Phillies, who could use a boost in the outfield, Kwan could be a transformational player.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n\t'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\tfbq('init', '1324276914788316');\n\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/mlb\/articles\/phillies_trade_target_could_be_a_game_changer\/s1_13132_42516559\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With left fielder Max Kepler struggling, the Philadelphia Phillies are reportedly among teams interested in dealing for Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan. In early July,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}