Whicker: Re-signing Schwarber is about winning now for Phillies
Slugger Kyle Schwarber re-signed with the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. He received a five-year, $150-million deal.
December 10, 2025
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
Hydrologists worry about 2030. So do climate scientists. Some baseball teams do, too, but generally they’re the ones who are trying to placate their fans. There’s nothing more self-indulgent than talking about the Five Year Plan when you’re 60-102 and you’re still charging eight bucks for hot dogs.
The Phillies aren’t worried about 2030. They proved it on Tuesday when they kept Kyle Schwarber, the 32-year-old king of the Three True Outcomes. Although Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh tried to bid high for Schwarber, the Phillies put up $150 million over five years. They had little choice. Not only is Schwarber probably the most popular Phillie since Chase Utley, he’s refining the few things he does well.
Schwarber has the single-season record for home runs by a lefty hitter against lefty pitchers, and also has the record for most home runs to begin a game. He doesn’t always lead off anymore, but in 2025 he finished second in the Most Valuable Player voting, or first in the Flesh-And-Blood division. He led the National League with 56 home runs and 132 RBIs. He also walked 108 times and struck out 197. That’s 361 plate appearances, out of 732, in which Schwarber wasn’t forced to run, at least not initially. Such a shuffleboard pace might well preserve Schwarber until he’s 38, the final year of that contract.
There are other reasons why baseball’s self-proclaimed paupers were willing to bid high for Schwarber. Although he doesn’t cultivate his popularity, it’s there. He looks like a guy who just got off his third shift, or maybe a trucker finishing a midnight run.
He fits very well in those towns in the industrial-strength Midwest, and also in the strap-hanging world of Philadelphia. His home runs also travel long distances and disappear quickly, and they’re often delivered when it matters. Last season Schwarber was a .255 hitter with a 1.004 OPS in scoring-position situations, and he hit .308 with two out. He hit .240 with a .928 OPS overall.
Inside the clubhouse Schwarber is given credit for shielding his teammates from the rocket-red glare of Philly fans, and maybe applying the needle himself. He can read the room.
“He brings down the heartbeat,” said manager Rob Thomson.
Schwarber is also a longtime winner. In 2013, he was on the first and only Indiana University team to attend a College World Series. He was a catcher then. The Cubs picked him fourth overall, and three years later Schwarber was in the midst of The Rapture, the first world championship in 108 years. He shouldn’t have been, because he ruptured his ACL and UCL in the second game of the season, but there he was, hitting .412 in the World Series against Cleveland.
“He’s the stuff of legends already,” catcher David Ross said.
Yet he wasn’t drafted, or recruited heavily, out of his Middletown, Ohio high school, where he was also known as a second-team All-State linebacker.
More than anything, Schwarber has a nearly feral instinct for hitting. He is not hitting like a longshoreman because he can’t do anything else. He knows Philly’s ballpark is kind to the powerful, and he has tailored his swing to hit 187 homers over the past four years. As far as the future goes, he’s not going to lose a step.
But where does this leave the Phillies?
They were National League champs in 2022 but have been eliminated by the Diamondbacks, Mets and Dodgers the past three years.
They have cast their lot with a nucleus of headliners, well into their thirtysomethings, and they are getting no discounts. They had the No. 3 payroll in 2025. Go down the line, and you realize why Phillies fans were so relieved to hear about Schwarber:
-Bryce Harper is 33 and makes $23.5 million through 2031. Last year his .844 OPS was his lowest since 2016, and he missed 30 games. Team president Dave Dombrowski said he “didn’t really know” if Harper could be an elite player again, which didn’t go over well with Harper.
-Trea Turner is 32 and makes $27.2 million through 2033. He won the N.L. batting title at .304 and was fifth in MVP voting.
-Aaron Nola is 32 and makes $24.5 million through 2030. He was a disaster in 2025, winning five games with a 6.01 ERA and making only 17 starts. His 1.346 WHIP was the worst of his 11-year career.
-Zack Wheeler is 35 and makes $42 million through 2027. This could be the season-maker, or breaker, for the Phillies. The brilliant Wheeler was 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA when he came down with thoracic outlet syndrome, which involves blood cuts. He will not be back until mid-summer, theoretically, but no one can comfortably say what he’ll be like.
Beyond that, the Phillies must make a call on catcher J.T. Realmuto. He’ll be 35 on Opening Day and is a free agent, and hit 12 home runs, with a .700 OPS that was his lowest since 2015. The Phillies could probably get a couple of defensive-minded catchers for less money that it will take to keep Realmuto, but they suddenly need offence. At the winter meetings, Thomson was talking up Justin Crawford, an outfield prospect whose father Carl was a renowned hitter and basestealer for Tampa Bay.
There would be no better time for the historically muscular Phillies’ farm system to fill some gaps.
Baseball is set up to reward a player’s back pages, not his aspirations. The Angels’ highest-paid player is still Anthony Rendon, the jackalope of Anaheim Stadium, who will make $38 million in the final year of his contract. The Reds gave Ken Griffey Jr. his final, $3.6 million deferred payment last year; Griffey retired in 2010.
Nolan Arenado’s $24-million-a-year deal is the largest on the St. Louis roster, even though the Cardinals have spent much phone time trying to match him up with someone else. Kris Bryant, a fossil who will draw $27 million through 2028, still clogs the Colorado books.
But nobody in Philadelphia is particularly worried about a 2030-model Kyle Schwarber. It’s not like he’s going to take the money and run.