CHICAGO – The Guardians have nominated Gold Glove left fielder Steven Kwan for the Roberto Clemente award. It is consider MLB’s most prestigious award.
Meanwhile, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, the Guardians activated rookie lefty Joey Cantillo to start tonight against the White Sox by designating for assignment left-hander Anthony Gose.
On Sunday, the Guards DFA’d Scott Barlow to activate Gose, who had been DFA’d at least twice before in the past few weeks. The last time Gose was DFA’d, he turned down the outright assignment and became a free agent.
That meant the Guardians had to re-sign him and bring him back to the big leagues for one day only to DFA him again.
Each of MLB’s 30 teams nominates a player for the Roberto Clemente award for their community service work. The winner will be announced during the World Series. Cleveland players who have won the award include Hall of Famer Jim Thome, Carlos Carrasco and Andrew Thornton.
Kwan’s involvement in the Cleveland community started with him connecting with John Marshall High School’s chess team based on his love for the game. In spring training he won a chess tournament among Cleveland players and sent his winnings to the chess clubs at all Cleveland schools.
He is involved in the True2U mentorship program, making several in-person and virtual visits to the eighth-grade class at Cleveland’s Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham School.
Kwan actively supports diverse populations through the Players Alliance and various groups that support Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders communities.
The Guardians will honor Kwan with a pregame on-field ceremony at Progressive Field on Sunday before they play Tampa Bay.
