Steven Kwan’s 4th straight Gold Glove Award matches Kenny Lofton in Guardians history

What makes Kwan’s achievement even more impressive is the consistency he’s displayed since entering the league. He has never played a major league season without winning a Gold Glove — putting him in rarefied air alongside baseball legends. As Noga pointed out, “Only, what, six years behind Ichiro and Nolan Arenado, who won Gold Gloves in their first 10 years each. It goes Ichiro, Nolan Arenado and then Kwan.”

Hoynes highlighted what makes Kwan such a special defender: “The thing about Kwan is he’s so consistent. He works at it every day before games. He’s not a big guy, but his arm strength and the quick release really surprises people.”

That arm strength has become Kwan’s calling card, allowing him to control the running game in ways that surprise opposing runners. “I don’t know how many runners he’s held to a single hitters, he’s held to singles when they take the turn at first base thinking it’s a double,” Hoynes observed.

The voting for the Gold Glove features significant input from those who see these players most often. Managers and coaches across the American League cast their votes alongside advanced metrics, and Kwan’s overwhelming victory speaks volumes about the respect he’s earned throughout baseball.

What’s particularly impressive about Kwan’s 2025 campaign was his ability to stay healthy. “He stayed on the field for most of the season,” Hoynes explained. “He battled that wrist injury, but he stayed in the lineup for the most part.”

With this fourth consecutive Gold Glove, Kwan has solidified himself alongside Lofton as the gold standard for outfield defense in Cleveland history. The debate about who stands as the greatest of all time will surely continue, but one thing is certain—Stephen Kwan has earned his place in that conversation.

Podcast transcript

Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynsie, over the weekend, we had probably one of the greatest game sevens you’ll ever see in, in any sport, much less the World Series. The Dodgers emerge with their second consecutive World Series championship. We’re going to get to that. We’re going to talk about it and break down everything that happened in that crazy game. But first, big guardians news. Kind of expected, actually, we were kind of anticipating it. Stephen Kwan on Sunday night named his fourth consecutive Gold Glove Award in the American League in left field. A tremendous honor again for Stephen Kwan. And this year he kind of took the, he kind of took away all doubt, removed all doubt pretty early in the season as to who was going to win that, that Gold Glove in the al. He was tremendous from start to finish. Led the league in defensive runs, saved outfield assists, and really a strong candidate now for the Platinum Glove, which is emblematic of the overall best defender in the American League. Hoynsie, what’d you think of Stephen Kwan tying Kenny Lofton for his fourth consecutive outfield goal glove?

Paul Hoynes: Oh, he was, he had a great year defensively and a good year offensive. Offensively, just, I think a key to this year, Joe, was he stayed on the field for most of the season. He was, he battled that wrist injury, but, you know, he stayed in the lineup for the most part. And that really helped him accumulate a lot of those defensive stats that have separated him from the rest of the left fielders in the American League.

Joe Noga: We, we’ve talked about Stephen Kwan’s defense a lot on this podcast, as far as, you know, our thoughts and our feelings on that. But, you know, to, to realize that there’s a, there’s a voting component to this award. You know, the stats and the, and the metrics make up a certain percentage, but every major league manager in the American League and, and up to six coaches can cast votes for this award. He was up against Tyler Soderstrom of the Athletics and Wyatt Langford of the Rangers, both solid left fielders in their own right, but they couldn’t hold a candle. Or what Kwon did just in terms of controlling the running game, erasing potential outs, and keeping runners from advancing. All things that, that he was able to do just at an elite level throughout the year. It know, put into perspective now, he’s, he’s not played a season in the major leagues where he hasn’t won a Gold Glove. You know, his first four years. He’s, he’s Only, what, six years behind Ichiro and Nolan Arenado, who won Gold Gloves in their first 10 years each. It goes Nolan, Arenado, Ichiro, and then Stephen Kwan. I’ll bet you he’d take that.

Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that’s, that’s a lead company for sure. The thing about Quan is, you know, he’s so consistent, Joe. He works at it every day before games. He’s not a big guy, but his arm strength and the quick release really surprises people. I don’t know how many runners he’s held to a single hitters, he’s held to singles when they take the turn at first base thinking it’s a double. But you know, his quick, his throw and his accurate throws back to the infield really stop those guys in their tracks. Just really a really fun guy to watch. And he’s, he’s an expert out there. He’s, he plays the left field wall, whether it’s Fenway, whether it’s progressive field, perfectly.

Joe Noga: But was Kenny Lofton the greatest outfielder you ever watched in, in, in a Cleveland uniform?

Paul Hoynes: Yeah, definitely. Lofton, you know, was a good instinctive ball player, but he had also had the athleticism and the, and the speed to outrun his mistakes if he got a bad jump on a ball. And his ability to jump at the wall, Joe, you’ve seen the plays was unmatched. I mean, he was a basketball player at the University of Arizona and he had the good hops. He wasn’t that tall, but he, he could sky man. He. That one catch against the third baseman from Baltimore. Yeah, B.J. Surhoff. That’s the best catch I’ve seen that out and out. That’s the best catch I’ve ever seen.

Joe Noga: Well, the reason I ask that is because Quan’s four consecutive Gold Gloves match Lofton now in franchise history for. Among outfielders, you know, they’re the only two that have won. The only two Cleveland outfielders who have won four consecutive Gold Gloves. Of course, we watched Omar Vizquel win eight Gold Gloves in his time in Cleveland. But as far as outfielders go, those two right now, Kwon and Lofton are the gold standard in terms of hardware. So you pretty much got to put those two up there in any conversation about the best defensive outfielders in Cleveland history. And I think, yeah, I’d be curious to find out what Kenny’s assessment of Stephen Kwan is. I think he would probably be along your lines there saying that Kenny’s speed at his peak was probably better and his, his jumping ability was pretty. But, you know, Kwan does Have a lot of those intangibles like you talked about with, with Kenny Lofton. Other Gold Glove news. You know, for as much as we expected Stephen Kwan to win his consecutive, we were kind of holding out hope to see Jose Ramirez win his first. He’s been nominated in a finalist seven times. Unfortunately denied again this year. Kansas City’s Mikel Garcia gets the, the Gold Glove at third base. And really, Jose Ramirez does so much and impacts the game in so many different ways. It’s almost like he’s, you know, one of these, you know, jack of all trades, master of none. Even though he’s, he’s pretty good at what he does in every, every aspect. But, but he can’t be the elite, the best third baseman in the American League. It just takes, it would just take away from everything else that he does special. Is it, is it satisfying enough for Jose to be a finalist seven times and just be able to point to that and that consistency.

Paul Hoynes: You know Jose as well as I do, Joe. I think that’s a resounding no. He wants to win a Gold Glove. He wants to win a World Series. He wants to be the best player he, he can be. So I’m sure he’s grinding, grinding some, some axes down in the Dominican Republic after not winning again, because, you know, I think he really wants to win that, Joe. You talk to him about it, you can see it, you know, you can see it in his eyes that he wants to win it. He’s such a, a competitive guy. But one of these years, hopefully he gets it because you keep being a finalist one, you know, one of these years it’s going to go in your favor.

Joe Noga: Yeah, but this year he did have a, he started off a little rocky, you know, committed a bunch of errors early in the season. But, but, you know, after about May, he came back and he was, he was outstanding. You know, he played 136 games at the position, posted a.961 fielding percentage, and he led all AL third basemen with 235 assists. He’d commit an error here or there, but they were on plays with like, you know, the swinging bunt that’s in front of the plate, and he might, you know, throw a ball in the dirt, but it wasn’t. He still plays the game with an intelligence and an acumen defensively. That’s among the best in any infielder you’ll see in baseball. Yeah. 330 chances and he only had 13 errors.

Paul Hoynes: Yeah. So, you know, he’s, he’s an active third baseman. You know, sometimes they play him so far off the line that sometimes I think that hurts him a little bit, you know, for making those, those diving stops at the line. But, you know, he’s got an accurate arm. He knows where to go with the ball. He’s, you know, he knows how to, you know, he’s excellent at starting the double play. So, you know, and going to his left, he’s very, We’ve seen him save runs, you know, multiple runs that way. I think he, he’s, he’s a solid third baseman and eventually probably that Gold Glove is going to end up in his possession.

Joe Noga: Yeah. The other Cleveland finalist, at least on the roster right now, Daniel Schneemann, was a, a utility player finalist. Mauricio Dubon, again from Houston, wins the award as the utility player. Dubon, just an outstanding outfielder and infielder all over the place. But, but Schneemann getting recognized as for his versatility and for his playmaking ability, I think was a big thing there. A nice little recognition for Daniel Schneemann for the season he had definitely.

Paul Hoynes: Joey. I mean, this is a guy that’s really improved his stock. You know, I heard a couple. There were some rumblings at the trade deadline that the Yankees were interested in him. You know, so he’s improved his stock not only, you know, by being. By doing what the Guardians asked him to do. Play all over the infield, play all over the field, really center field, the infield. You know, there’s nothing this guy can’t do. And he, and he showed some power at the plate this season. So he’s a versatile guy that, that’s made himself better each year.

Joe Noga: Yeah. And, you know, for, for him to be that close at, at one position just means he, he had to perform or at multiple positions just means he had to perform at a high level. I think that was a testament to the, the work that he put in working with Kai Correa and Rouglas Odor on the infield and then working with J.T. Maguire in the outfield as well. Carlos Santana denied his chance at a second consecutive goal glove at first base. Ty France wins the, the honor there for the first time. He played with both Minnesota and Toronto this past season. So Carlos Santana, 116 games at first base for the Guardians and really played elite defense, was among the league leaders at the position in outs, above average and defensive runs saved. Just another, you know, the one thing that Carlos Santana, no matter what he, he didn’t take any struggles at the plate into the field. With him, he always turned up and, and, and gave the, the best effort defensively and that we had come to expect from Santana over, over so many years.

Paul Hoynes: Uh, Joe, there was such a drop off in defense at first base when, after Santana was, you know, DFA or you know, when he was, when dropped him to give more playing time to open first base up to, you know, Manzardo and, and, and John Kenzie Noel. I mean you, you notice C.J.

Joe Noga: Kayfus.

Paul Hoynes: C.J. Kayfus. Yeah, I’m sorry. And you noticed the drop off immediately. I mean, and, and it’s not really fair to compare those guys to Santana who’s, you know, what a 15 year veteran. I mean, he was so smooth around the bag. His glove work was so great. I mean digging, digging throws out of the dirt. He was just, he turned himself into an excellent first baseman. And I don’t know if Carlos is going to play next season, but if he doesn’t, he, he ended his career as, as a really a great, great first baseman. A fun guy to watch out there in, in at first base.

Joe Noga: Yeah, that’s the awards for the Gold Gloves handed out Sunday night, I believe at the end of this week. Friday there’s the Gold Glove awards ceremony in New York and we’ll find out the Platinum Glove winners, the team defensive award winners, and you know, I don’t think the Guardians are not a finalist for the team defensive Award, but who knows, maybe Stephen Kwan has a shot as the, the best overall defender in the American League. And there’s voting that will go on until Thursday at noon and online@rawlings.com if you want to go there and vote for Stephen Kwan to try to get him his first career Platinum Glove. All right, World Series Game 7. Hoynsie, Sunday night was, was pretty amazing. I don’t know how much of the game you got to see just, you know, short of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, I think that’s probably one of the best game sevens that I’ve ever seen and that Major League Baseball has to be really happy with the way things went. The Dodgers go into extra innings and knock off the Blue Jays. So many opportunities for Toronto to come out of there with a win. You’ve got Miguel Rojas homering in the ninth inning to sort of push the game into extra innings and preserve the Dodgers chances. You’ve got Will Smith hitting a home run off of Shane Bieber in the 11th to give the Dodgers the lead and the winner. And then you’ve got Yoshinobu Yamamoto going out There inhuman pitching in relief and, and, and getting out of a jam in the, the bottom of the 11th, getting the double play that gives Los Angeles its second consecutive World Series championship. What, what stood out the most from, from that game, as you look back at it, and, and the Dodgers championship win.

Paul Hoynes: Well, I, I just feel bad for Toronto, Joe. I think they were the better team. I really do. They outscored the, the Dodger to 26. They out hit him 269 to 203. The only offensive advantage that the Dodgers had, it was in home runs, 11 to 8. They had a, they had a lower ERA than, than the Dodgers. The Dodgers had a 3.95 ERA. Toronto had a 3.21 ERA. You know, I think the thing that stood out to me, Joe, you hit on it was Yamamoto. I mean, who, what a performance. The guy pitches a complete game in game two. He wins that game. He comes back in game six and, and, and gets the win on one. No, no rest. No rest.

Joe Noga: He comes out of the bullpen, a hundred pitches.

Paul Hoynes: I know, it’s crazy. He goes, you know, he goes six innings in game six, then he comes out with two for two and two thirds the last two and two third innings in game seven. You know what? One hit, no runs. Just an amazing, an amazing accomplishment. And this guy in the postseason, Joe, this guy goes 5 and 1 this postseason with a 1.45 ERA. He gives up six earned runs, 37 innings. I mean, you talk about a horse and this guy isn’t that big, but you know, he’s the one Dodger starter that in the season made 30 starts. And then he comes in and does this in the postseason. It was amazing. It was just, it was a, it was a performance for the ages.

Joe Noga: Yeah. You wonder if, you know if he can win the Cy Young if postseason vote. If postseason performance counted for the Cy Young award voting, Yamamoto would be far and away the National League winner in that regard. But it’s weird. The Dodgers have the best player on the planet in Shohei Ohtani. And he’s the best player on the planet because he can hit home runs and he can pitch like the best pitcher on the planet. But for a 10 day stretch, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the best pitcher in the universe. And I don’t think anybody can question that. What he did was, was superhuman. We’ve never seen the likes of it in the World Series. We’ve never seen the likes of it in the postseason. And who knows if we’ll ever see anything like it again. But this was. I don’t think you can overstate what he. But he did. I, I also want to talk about just how the Dodgers just seem to not necessarily get every break, but make every play. And you talk about the bases loaded ground ball in the, what was it, the 10th inning in, in Game 7? Where. Or was it. No, it was the bottom of the ninth, the bottom of the ninth, and it was the, the ground ball to Miguel Rojas and he throws home. And you know, it was a. Miles Straw, that was the, the pinch runner at third base. You know, he gets in there out of the. It looked like that the play at the plate was going to be close, that maybe Will Smith’s foot came off the base. But after you saw the replay, you were like, holy cow, this is, this is the most amazing game. And it continued. And then Addison Barger drives a ball to the left center field gap and Andy Pages, who was, who had just been inserted defensively, goes over and trucks his own teammate, Kike Hernandez to make a running catch. All of these things sort of added up to just a magical night for, for the Dodgers. And you’re right, Cleveland fans had a vested interest in a lot of ways in seeing Ernie Clement and Miles Straw and Andres Jimenez go out there and maybe win a World Series title and Shane Bieber. But, but you have to look back at it and think what we watched was, was historic in, in that regard.

Paul Hoynes: Yeah, it was really a great World Series, no doubt about it. You know, I heard one of the announcers, there’s, you know, the day after, the morning after, you know, going back, and he’s talking about the Blue Jays. He goes, I’ve never been seen a worse loss in person than this than the, than Toronto suffered in Game seven. And I’m thinking that, thinking as I’m watching this, he goes, come to Cleveland, buddy. We can tell you all about terrible game 7 losses in extra innings. You know, it’s happened before.

Joe Noga: It was almost, almost a carbon copy of what happened to Cleveland in 1997 with a starting pitcher on the mound giving up the go ahead run. I was, you know, yeah, again, I was having serious flashbacks in a lot of ways, even with 2016. Yeah, a great World Series, a great performance by both sides. Major League Baseball is going to need at least one more of those if they’re going to try to stock up any goodwill with the fans because with a lockout coming in 2027, we’re not going to get to see too many of these. Maybe in the future. Who Knows, but we’ll definitely keep an eye on that. All right. Just a few, few housekeeping notes with the end of the World Series five day sort of dark period where the teams can negotiate with their own free agents. But then I, I believe, I believe come Thursday is like Lane Thomas and Jakob Junis, the two guardians free agents are, are, are eligible to sign anywhere they choose. The club has to make a decision on the mutual option with left hander John Means. I believe that’s what $6 million option for, for Means. And they’ve also learned that they’ve got confirmation that they’ve picked up a fourth year option on Juan Brito. So we’ll, we’ll at least get a chance to, to see Juan Brito at some point during the major league season if he’s able to stay healthy and get out there on the field. What do you think of the off season calendar being put into activation mode?

Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, this is, this is kind of the interesting time of the year. You know, it can drag out forever it seems like, or it can happen fast. So after, you know, they have the, this, this little period of time where teams can negotiate with their own free agents and usually nothing really happens. Nothing really happens now. I mean I think the teams, you know, and, and the players, they’ve gotten so close to free agency that they want to, you know, the, the players, you know, are anxious to get out there and see what they’re worth and the teams are just doing, you know, kind of fact finding stuff. So but you know, after, after this period and, and the free agent gates open, it’ll start, you know, then to come the winter meetings and then, you know, the GM meetings, then the, then all the trade talk. And so, you know, it starts again. This is, this is the winter season, but there’s no games, but the action still continues.

Joe Noga: You expect free agency to be rather slow maybe again this year with the, the specter of, you know, collective bargaining agreement expiring at the end of next season and you know, the potential for a lockout after 2026.

Paul Hoynes: I think it’ll be a team to team thing. I think the big market teams aren’t going to be scared away. They, they’re, they’re used to spending money. But the mid to small market teams are probably going to take a more conservative approach.

Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on and we’ll see what, what trades transpire as if teams are able to, to move on or acquire players with big contracts. That also factors into some of those roster building decisions. All right, Hoynsie, that’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast. We’ll be back with a special guest tomorrow on Tuesday’s edition of the show. We’ll, we’ll keep wraps, but should be a lot of fun. We’ll look forward to it.