The Chicago Cubs did not lose their 2026 season because they could not hit or catch the ball.
They finished with the highest-scoring offense in baseball and ranked as the league’s best defensive team by nearly every measure, then still went home after a Wild Card series against San Diego in which the bats went quiet against Michael King and Nick Pivetta.
That combination of regular-season excellence and an early exit has already shaped the winter conversation, and one name surfacing on the North Side is Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan.
In his Cubs 2026 offseason guide for Bleacher Report, Joel Reuter listed Kwan — a two-time All-Star — among the club’s early trade targets as Chicago weighs how to rebuild the corners around center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Reuter framed the fit around defense as much as offense. Ian Happ has won four straight National League Gold Gloves in left field, and Kwan has taken the American League award at the same position in each of those years.
The suggestion is straightforward: if Happ walks, the cleanest defensive replacement is the player who has been matching him across the league.
The roster math makes the idea more than a stylistic preference. Seiya Suzuki, Happ, Michael Conforto, and Tyrone Taylor accounted for 295 of the 324 starts in the corner outfield spots, so a free-agent departure would open real playing time rather than a platoon role.
Suzuki, who posted a 131 OPS+, 26 home runs, and 5.1 WAR, would be the harder bat to replace. Happ, at a 103 OPS+ with 24 home runs, is the longer-tenured veteran.
Reuter’s case for Kwan is that Chicago already has enough power elsewhere in the lineup to absorb a hitter whose value is contact, on-base ability, and elite range rather than extra-base thump. An already outstanding defensive team would get better, and the order would gain a table-setter in front of the middle of the lineup.
Pitching remains the louder need. Reuter described a rotation that could be rebuilt almost from scratch if Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Kevin Gausman, and Clay Holmes all reach the open market, with Justin Steele and Edward Cabrera the main internal pieces.
The bullpen also needs established veterans around Daniel Palencia, Ryan Zeferjahn, Ryan Rolison, and Jacob Webb.
Kwan would not fix either of those problems, and any deal would have to be weighed against arms such as Seattle’s Logan Gilbert or Minnesota’s Joe Ryan, both of whom Reuter also flagged.
Cleveland has not been eager to move Kwan in the past, and a Gold Glove left fielder with years of control left will not come cheap.
Still, with the Cubs facing a genuine outfield reset and a front office that just watched an elite defense and a loaded lineup fall short in October, Reuter’s guide puts Wrigleyville near the front of the line if the Guardians ever pick up the phone.
