Johnathan Walker:College pals, national champs, now MLB All-Stars: Adley Rutschman and Steven Kwan reunite

ARLINGTON,Johnathan Walker Texas – The ties that bind Adley Rutschman and Steven Kwan only seem to grow more significant.

At first, it was the serendipity of adjacent stalls in the Oregon State baseball locker room. The connection of Kwan’s best friend at Oregon State having attended Rutschman’s high school. An affinity for the grind and an appreciation for ironic humor.

“I guess it was destiny,” says Kwan, “we were going to become close.”

That destiny led them this week to Globe Life Field, where Tuesday night, Kwan will lead off for a lineup that’s just about as good a squad one could find on this globe – the American League All-Stars.

Rutschman will be the starting catcher and bat eighth, capping off a Murderers’ Row that includes Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

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Come Friday, Kwan and Rutschman will return to their day jobs, as crucial contributors to the Cleveland Guardians and Baltimore Orioles, who lead their respective divisions and may collide come October.

For this week, though, it’s about being teammates again, about playing a joyous game with a true ride-or-die and basking in their significant accomplishments in a punishing sport.

“He’s a hard worker, does things the right way, the nicest dude,” Rutschman says of Kwan. “Those are the kind of people you want around. Fast friends and, you know, ever since…

“You go through different stages of your career and life. He’s got one of those personalities where he’s a good listener and he gives good advice and understands that guys need different things at different times. He does a really good job reading people and giving what’s needed.”

 Right now, things couldn’t be going much better for the duo.

'We were on a wavelength'

Kwan, 26, was a year ahead of Rutschman, five months his junior, at Oregon State. He first encountered the hulking catcher when Rutschman arrived to play for the Corvallis Knights, a wood-bat summer team, shortly after graduating high school. Kwan’s pal on the Beavers, catcher Zak Taylor, attended the same suburban Portland high school as Rutschman.

Kwan also vibed with the new kid.

“I guess we didn’t take things too seriously. Maybe we just weren’t able to at the time,” Kwan remembers. “We were serious about becoming good baseball players and at the same time having a good time – playing games, talking about random things that would happen.

“I feel like we were on a wavelength, very similar.”

They certainly were regarding the getting better at baseball bit.

Oregon State won the 2018 College World Series, as the junior Kwan and was drafted in the fifth round by Cleveland. Rutschman merely batted .408 with a .505 on-base percentage and a 1.133 OPS.

A year later, he’d add power, socking 17 home runs while hitting .411 and getting drafted No. 1 overall, perhaps most significantly as the first pick under a new Orioles regime.

Both would debut early in the 2022 season, and Rutschman was an immediate hit, posting an .806 OPS and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting.

Kwan, listed at 5-9, 170 pounds, acted the part, slashing his way to a .282 average and .356 OBP his first two seasons. This year, as the major league batting average plummeted below .240 for most of the first half, Kwan was the outlier: He takes a major league-leading .352 average into the break.

“It’s the willingness to shorten the swing down with two strikes,” Kwan says, explaining how he’s batting more than a hundred points better than the average dude. “I normally don’t hit a lot of home runs, so to be able to detach from that and focus on getting on first base any way possible, I think that gives me more chances to get balls in play, get lucky and have the ball squeak through.

“Whereas other people, there’s so many stronger guys in the league who can hit a home run any time through. I’m OK making that sacrifice and shortening up.”

Yet he’s no longer just a contact guy.

After significant winter work to add slug to his repertoire, Kwan has hit in just 69 games, already surpassing his career high. Yet he’s still struck out just 25 times in 308 plate appearances; that 8.1% strikeout rate ranks in the 100^th percentile in the majors.

He sees a path to greatness in the six-time All-Star batting two slots behind him in the Guardians’ lineup.

“My biggest role model is Jose Ramirez,” Kwan says of the 5-9, 190-pounder with 23 homers at the break. “He’s a big contact guy, but can hit home runs when he needs to. He’s had a really, really great career.

“If I could be something similar to that, that would be great. He does that tradeoff.”

Rutschman’s game is a little more physical, but the tenets are similar. He clubbed 20 homers last season, pairing that with a .374 OBP and .809 OPS. Through the first 81 games this season, he was a statistical unicorn: Toting a .300 batting average and an .830 OPS.

He stumbled into the break on a 5-for-46 streak that cut his average to .275 and OPS to .780, but still ranks third among AL catchers in both categories and earned the starting All-Star nod for a second consecutive year.

If Rutschman has that look of perennial All-Star starter, he wouldn’t be surprised if his old teammate comes along for the ride.

“He just continues to want to get better,” says Rutschman. “He could very easily be satisfied with where he is but he continues to work and look for new ways to better himself.

“It’s no surprise to anyone who’s played with him that he’s where he’s at now.”

A new hang

Rutschman was a little late getting on the bus to All-Star Monday. Kwan flagged him down and slid over, like they were back in Corvallis.

He tries not to bomb him with postgame texts, “knowing Adley is such a nice guy, and so many people will ask him for different things – his attention, mostly. I don’t want to add to that.”

Their big league tradition is grabbing breakfast together when the other is in town. This week, they added a midsummer engagement. Given that both are entering the prime of their career, it might not be the last All-Star bus they ride together.

“Just a personality,” says Rutschman, “you immediately gravitate toward.”