CLEVELAND — When Guardians manager Stephen Vogt spoke to Steven Kwan after Sunday's 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels , the standout left fielder and leadoff hitter held his head high amid adversity.
The Guardians placed Kwan on the 10-day injured list Monday afternoon with an acute left hamstring strain he suffered while making a defensive play in Saturday's 7-1 win over the Angels . The club announced Kwan underwent an MRI to confirm the injury and is expected to miss approximately four weeks before he'll be ready to play for the Guardians again.
"Same Kwanny," Vogt said before the Guardians opened a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. "Just great attitude, like, 'Hey, yeah, I'll be back. I'm going to do this.'
"That's who he is, so I know he's going to be smart. We have a great medical staff. They're going to make sure he's dialed in and ready to go. You can't replace somebody like that, but hopefully [he's] back soon."
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Estevan Florial will lead off and play left field for the American League Central-leading Guardians (22-12) to begin their series against the divisional foe Tigers (18-16). Vogt mentioned Will Brennan , Gabriel Arias and David Fry as other potential options for the Guardians during Kwan's absence.
"That's the beauty of this team," Vogt said. "We've got so much versatility. We can match up well with the pitcher."
Kwan had been on fire. He entered Sunday with an AL-leading 47 hits and .353 batting average. He scored 28 runs and compiled six doubles, two triples and three home runs with a .903 OPS.
"Obviously, super unfortunate news for Steven," Vogt said. "We're going to miss Kwanny a lot. It sounds like four weeks, so kind of not a horrific hamstring, but anytime it's hamstring, it's not good. Anytime without Kwanny at the top of our order is not good, but sounds like it shouldn't hinder him too long. Just got to make sure that he's back to a hundred percent before we get him back out there."
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Kwan, 26, has been instrumental to the Guardians' success this season. While discussing the setback, Vogt invoked the team's response to losing ace Shane Bieber last month to season-ending Tommy John surgery .
"It comes down to that group in the room there rallying around each other, rallying around Kwanny," Vogt said. "It's not one person needs to come in and replace him. It's, 'Hey, we've just got to keep playing our game.' Yeah, we're missing our boy, and it's a big hit, but similar to the pitching when we lost Biebs, the guys have stepped up."
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Steven Kwan injury update: Guardians expect outfielder to miss 4 weeks
