Guardians' absurd Steven Kwan trade price might've prevented a huge Padres mistake

Sometimes the best trade is the one that collapses before anyone can talk themselves into it. That’s not usually how Padres fans are conditioned to think, because this franchise under A.J. Preller has turned big deadline moves into a personality trait. If there is a star available, San Diego is usually somewhere in the conversation. 

When Steven Kwan was connected to the Padres at the 2025 trade deadline, the fit made obvious sense at the time. Kwan, in that moment, looked like the kind of player who could have helped the Padres immediately. He was a high-contact left fielder with All-Star credibility, Gold Glove defense with the kind of plate appearances every contender wants in October.

The problem was the price. According to reporting that surfaced after the deadline, Cleveland’s asking price from San Diego included Leo De Vries, the Padres’ premium teenage shortstop prospect at the time. The Guardians apparently wanted even more than that, too. San Diego eventually walked away from the Kwan talks and used De Vries in a different blockbuster, sending him, Braden Nett, Henry Baez and Eduarniel Núñez to the Athletics for Mason Miller and JP Sears.  

That was already a monster price. But at least the Padres came away with one of baseball’s most overpowering relievers in Miller, who’s under club control through 2029, plus a needed piece in Sears.  

Giving up that kind of package for Kwan would have looked a whole lot different now. Cleveland may have saved the Padres from themselves.

Steven Kwan’s offensive slide makes Padres’ failed trade pursuit look much better

Kwan’s offense has slipped hard enough to change the whole framing. Through the early part of 2026, he was hitting just .221 with a .573 OPS and a 66 wRC+ through 37 games.

His margin for offensive decline is not huge. His whole offensive identity is built on contact, bat control, on-base value and enough gap authority to keep pitchers honest. When that profile starts sliding, the floor can arrive quickly.

For the Padres, that would have been a nightmare outcome. Imagine watching De Vries leave the organization, watching the system take another major hit, and then watching Kwan arrive as a good defender with a fading bat instead of a lineup-shaping table-setter. That is the kind of miss that lingers.

San Diego pivoted to Miller, and while that trade was still expensive enough to make anyone’s eye twitch, it at least matched the Padres’ clearest October obsession. A declining Kwan would not have done that.

That is the danger with deadline shopping. The player you want in July is not always the player you are stuck defending the following May. The Guardians’ high asking price made the Padres stop short of the ledge. Maybe that was Cleveland overplaying its hand. Maybe it was San Diego finally finding a line it would not cross for the wrong kind of bat.

Either way, the result looks a lot cleaner from the Padres’ side now.

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