Guardians keep Kwan, deal Bieber and Sewald at MLB trade deadline: takeaways

New York Times

3 days ago

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians traded Shane Bieber and Paul Sewald on Thursday morning, and then sat back and waited for some team to meet their demands for Steven Kwan. No one did. Here are a few thoughts.
There were plenty of conversations about moving Kwan this week. The Guardians spoke with the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds about a potential deal. As it typically does, however, the team set a gaudy price and didn't budge.
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Of those six contenders, a couple didn't have strong enough farm systems to be a match. The Padres instead opted to send prized shortstop prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics for Mason Miller and J.P. Sears. The Dodgers, of all the suitors, definitely have the farm system to pull off such a deal, but they instead made upgrades on the margins in reliever Brock Stewart and outfielder Alex Call.
Kwan said Wednesday that he found the rumors flattering. That's how Guardians president Chris Antonetti sold it to him as well when the two chatted on Thursday afternoon.
'Not only do we have a profound appreciation for what he's able to contribute on the baseball field and in the clubhouse,' Antonetti said, 'but so does the rest of Major League Baseball.'
Steven Kwan goes 431! 💥#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/ds6P1xXL9g
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) July 27, 2025
Kwan is under team control through the 2027 season. He's as self-aware a big-leaguer as there is, and heard the rumblings in recent days, though he tried to ignore them. Past negotiations about a contract extension have not been fruitful, but Kwan welcomed the opportunity to try again in the future.
It's been a tumultuous week for the club, thanks to closer Emmanuel Clase, but the Guardians sit 2 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot. They welcome the skeleton crew of the Minnesota Twins to town on Friday.
The Guardians received a bunch of calls on Bieber over the last week or two, and once he cleared his latest rehab hurdle with no issues, it became inevitable. The only question was what the Guardians would net in return.
Cleveland could have clutched onto Bieber until this winter, when he's likely to decline his $16 million player option and instead collect a $4 million buyout and reset his market in free agency. Then, the Guardians could have submitted a qualifying offer to him, and had he rejected that, they would have earned a compensatory draft pick. They wanted a prospect they valued more than the pick, and it appears they achieved that.
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Consider these two scouting reports.
1. 'Another guy that has an advanced feel to pitch … really commands the fastball extremely well … throws a ton of strikes … has a clean, repeatable delivery … doesn't have overwhelming stuff … his off-speed pitches need work.'
2. 'Walked just 5 percent of batters he faced … works with average stuff … (arm slot) helps his fastball play up above its velocity … more polish than projection … back-end starter potential.'
The first report is a mix of former Cleveland scouting director Brad Grant and Baseball America about Bieber from when they drafted him in 2016. The second report is from The Athletic's Keith Law, on pitcher Khal Stephen, whom the Guardians acquired for Bieber.
Sound similar? Several rival evaluators noted that Stephen perfectly fits the parameters the Guardians tend to seek when adding pitchers. Stephen is dealing with a shoulder impingement, but he was expected to return to the mound in the next week or two. He owns a 2.06 ERA this season, with 18 walks and 99 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings. He had reached Double A before landing on the injured list.
As for Bieber, he was a likely trade candidate in 2023 until he suffered an injury. He was a likely trade candidate in 2024 until he tore his elbow (and the team turned out to be a legitimate contender). The Guardians re-signed him for 2025, helped him along his rehab from Tommy John surgery, paid him about two-thirds of his $10 million base salary and then unloaded him for a prospect.
It's sort of an inconspicuous departure for a guy who morphed from an overlooked, unheralded prospect into a Cy Young Award winner.
Shane, thank you for everything you have done for Cleveland baseball and this community.
Best of luck in Toronto! 💙#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/rYQMQwbO9S
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) July 31, 2025
Teams have traded Sewald at the deadline in two of the last three seasons. On both occasions, he was confident he wouldn't be dealt. It's a ruthless time of year.
One afternoon in late July 2023, Sewald, then a member of the Seattle Mariners' bullpen, walked out of the kitchen and into the visiting clubhouse at Chase Field in Arizona. On a TV screen too big to miss, he caught an MLB Network display that read, 'Five players most likely to be traded.' His name made the list.
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'That's really tough,' Sewald said. 'Like, 'Man, I really hope that's not true.''
At the start of that month, with the Mariners four games under .500 and 10 games back in the AL West, there was no doubt in Sewald's mind: He was headed out of town. Seattle, though, blitzed through its July schedule with a 17-9 record. At the end of the month, the Mariners took two of three in Arizona and climbed to whiten one game of a Wild Card spot. Manager Scott Servais held a team meeting to express how thrilled he was with the team's play and how it should position the club to buy, not sell.
'I was like, 'Oh man, I guess I'm not getting traded,'' Sewald recalled last week. That was the preference, too. He didn't want to leave Seattle. He didn't want to drag his family to another city without warning. He says he would have stayed with the Mariners as long as they would have had him.
Well, he was traded anyway.
'I was shocked,' he said. 'In the moment, I was heartbroken.'
Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen called Sewald to tell him they were acquiring him and asked if he could meet the team in San Francisco that day. Sewald mentioned that if they had completed the trade a day earlier, he could have just switched clubhouses.
The midseason upheaval ended up being for the best. Sewald joined the Diamondbacks, who made an implausible run to the World Series.
'You gather your thoughts, you pack your house, and you leave,' Sewald said. 'I remember saying, 'They traded three prospects for me. They really wanted me.' It felt really nice to be wanted. They were desperate for a closer.'
It helps that Arizona was his top-ranked destination when Stephen Vogt, Seattle's bullpen coach in 2023 and now Sewald's manager in Cleveland, asked Sewald where he'd want to wind up if he were to be traded. Sewald mentioned Arizona, given its proximity to his Las Vegas home and the fact that he and his family were familiar with the area, having spent several spring trainings there.
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Ultimately, the trade capped a mentally taxing month for Sewald. As he reflected on the hoopla, he breathed a sigh of relief that such a scenario wasn't likely this summer, since he's been sidelined with a strain in the back of his shoulder.
Whoops.
Dating back to the start of 2023, Sewald has been one of the best swing-and-miss relievers in baseball. Among relievers with at least 125 appearances over that span, he ranks tied for 21st with a 29.6% strikeout rate and 5th with a 56.3% in-zone rate. None of the other 110…
— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) July 31, 2025
The Guardians sent Sewald to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday in exchange for cash considerations or a player to be named later. He has made only 18 appearances this season because of his shoulder issues, and he signed a $6 million deal with Cleveland over the winter. That pact includes a $10 million club option (a near-certainty to be declined) or a $1 million buyout.
(Top photo of Steven Kwan: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)