Kyle Schwarber, who hit 56 home runs this past season for the Phillies, and who still might end up beating out Shohei Ohtani for National League MVP, is about to become a free agent. That is a lot of home runs to hit the market and more RBIs – 132 – than anybody in baseball. It’s kind of a big deal, for someone with big numbers like that.
He didn’t hit as many home runs as Aaron Judge did on his way to free agency after hitting 62 for the Yankees back in 2022. But it’s more than Judge hit for the Yankees this season, and more than Ohtani hit for the Dodgers, more than anybody except Cal Raleigh’s 60. Before the Phillies lost a heartbreak Game 4 on Thursday night to the Dodgers, the lasting image of Schwarber – for the season, maybe for his Phillies career – was the two home runs he hit in Game 3, one a 455-foot shot that tried to leave Dodger Stadium.
Now the Phillies have to make a long-term decision about him. Schwarber has to make one himself. He is still just 32 years old, by the way, even though he has been a name to know in baseball since he helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series. Somehow, he made it to October that year after knee surgery in April to repair a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee.
All this time later, he has become a home run star of this game at this home run time, still swinging away with the big boys. It is also worth noting that he is a year younger than Judge, and just a year older than Ohtani, who couldn’t buy a hit against the Phillies even while watching Schwarber keep hitting homers, one of them to the moon. One way or another, whether Schwarber leaves or goes, he is going to get paid.
He has become as exciting an at-bat as either Judge or Ohtani or Raleigh. The Phillies needed one more big fly from him on Thursday night, just one, to keep their season alive. They didn’t get it from him or Bryce Harper (we talk a lot about how much Judge needs a World Series championship to fill out his amazing resume, but Harper needs one just as much) or anybody else. Now, they lose a division series to the Dodgers the way they did to the Mets a year ago. It happens after an NL East title, same as a year ago.
The Phillies, who are never afraid to take big swings of their own for players they want, now have to decide whether to bring him back after a series of October disappointments even with him around.
And Schwarber, still very much in his baseball prime? He has to decide whether or not to take somebody else’s money, and go try to win somewhere else. It was four years ago, before he left the Red Sox, that he helped hit the Sox to within two victories --- against the Astros -- of another trip to the World Series. It is impossible to believe that the Sox, who did a lot of good things this season but who so dearly needed another big bat after trading Rafael Devers, wouldn’t welcome him back to Fenway Park with open arms if given the chance.
Whether Schwarber does stay or go, he made it clear after Thursday night’s loss how much baseball means to him, and how much his experience in Philadelphia has meant to him, even after the crushing, extra-inning loss that ended the Phillies’ season -- reliever Orion Kerkering throwing that ball away in the bottom of the 11th.
Here is some of what Schwarber said to the media afterward:
"It doesn't feel good, you know? You just make a lot of different relationships in the clubhouse. You never know how it's gonna work out, right? You just make so many personal relationships with guys and you spend how much time with these guys throughout the course of the year. And they become family. And you just never know how it's gonna go.
“But these guys all know how I feel about them. I've got a lot of respect for the guys in here, our organization, the coaching staff, everyone top to bottom. This is a premier organization, and a lot of people should feel very lucky that one night you're playing for a team that is trying to win every single year.
“And you have a fan base that cares, and you have ownership that cares, and you have coaches that care. You have everyone in the room that cares. There's no other reason: We're all about winning. And it's a great thing. I think that's why it hurts just as much as any other year.”
There are a lot of other prominent names about to become part of a new free agent class: Pete Alonso, Bo Bichette, Kyle Tucker, a former MVP like Cody Bellinger. Not one is more dynamic or more attractive than Schwarber. Clearly there is a lot to unpack after those comments Thursday night, all of them clearly coming from the heart. Now we’ll see if Kyle Schwarber – taking all those home runs with him – is about to pack his bags again.