Beyond his prodigious power, Schwarber is regarded as a titan in the Phillies’ locker room, a reputation that made him even more appealing to teams as he nearly doubled the guarantee from his last foray into free agency. Aging DHs rarely get multiyear deals on the open market, let alone ones at $30 million a year, but Schwarber was an outlier in multiple regardless.
The three-time All-Star found the best version of himself in his 30s after winning the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs and getting non-tendered by them before spending 2021 with the Nationals and Red Sox. Seen as a one-dimensional player then, Schwarber went to Philadelphia and turned into much more, destroying left-handed pitching that teams deployed to neutralize his powerful left-handed swing.
With Alex Bregman hitting free agency after one year in Boston and Pete Alonso opting out of his deal with the Mets, both teams considered adding Schwarber to their lineup. Baltimore made a strong push, sources said, as did Pittsburgh, which offered a high-dollar four-year deal that would have more than tripled its previous largest contract given out in free agency.
The Phillies won the NL East division for the second consecutive season in 2025, winning the second-most games in MLB before running into a Dodgers team that ousted them following an 11th-inning error in Game 4 of the division series. Upon the completion of the World Series, Philadelphia made re-signing Schwarber its clear priority.
His signing is expected to accelerate a free agent market that, to this point, has moved slowly. The majority of top free agents in both the hitting (Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette, Munetaka Murakami, Bregman and Alonso) and pitching (Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suarez, Michael King and Zac Gallen) markets remain available.
Kyle Schwarber goes yard again for Philadelphia with this two-run swat to right. (0:36)
Kyle Schwarber hits another home run to make it 8-1 Phillies (0:36)Kyle Schwarber goes yard again for Philadelphia with this two-run swat to right. (0:36)