Bryce Harper on Kyle Schwarber: ‘I can’t see him in any other uniform’
PHILADELPHIA – There is a consensus about Kyle Schwarber.
The star designated hitter is having a walk year for the ages. He is on pace to be only the second Phillie to hit over 50 home runs in a regular season. Outside of an uncharacteristically quiet June, Schwarber has carried the Phillies lineup for most of the season.
The team would be in a much darker place without Schwarber. Thirty percent of the Phillies’ home runs this year have come off his bat. The Phillies’ team OPS is .736. Minus Schwarber, it’s .710.
He came up with arguably one of the biggest swings of the Phillies’ season on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
With the bases loaded, two away and the Phillies down one, Schwarber stepped up to the plate with the crowd rising behind him. He delivered the big hit – a grand slam – that everyone was craving to see. Typical Schwarber.
Schwarber’s popularity is difficult to ignore. The Phillies brass isn’t shying away from the pressure mounting to get him re-signed after this season.
“He’s a great person in the dugout,” managing partner John Middleton said on Friday. “He’s a great person in the clubhouse. We love him. We want to keep him. We don’t need any motivation whatsoever.”
Bryce Harper on Saturday chimed in with another meaningful endorsement.
Would it be hard for Harper to imagine a Phillies team without Schwarber for years to come?
“I think management knows that, (Dombrowski) knows that as well,” Harper said. “They’re going to make the best decision for our team. If he’s in those plans, obviously, he should be here.”
Harper and Schwarber are the two most prominent personalities in the locker room. The leadership styles are different. Harper leads by example and speaks up when something needs to be said.
Schwarber is out in front. He will go around the room, letting the up-and-down reliever know that he pitched a great inning. He’ll give a pat on the back to the guy buried in his locker, sensing that a demotion to Triple-A is inevitable. He is available for anyone and everyone.
He gets on the microphone to make everything feel a little lighter on the bus ride to the hotel.
“He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” Harper said. “He keeps it relaxed every day. He understands what it’s like to be a big leaguer, and he comes up in those moments and comes through every single time.”
But like Harper, Schwarber has also embraced what it means to be a professional athlete in a town as obsessed with sports as Philadelphia. His Phillies career began in 2022 with the team stuck in an 11-year postseason drought. He dared his teammates to embrace the challenge, not run away from it. It resulted in a joy ride to the World Series and a three-year stretch of October baseball being the new norm.
“It’s super nice that you come here and you feel like that you’ve kind of been able to really be yourself and settle into yourself as well,” Schwarber said. “I feel like you’re growing in different ways and learning new things about yourself that you didn’t know. But also just feeling like the relationships that you’ve made in the clubhouse and the people here, those are things that you’re not going to forget.”
Discussions on a new contract will wait until the end of the season. Schwarber said he doesn’t want it to be a distraction.
“To be honest with you, it’s probably just something where you wait until the end,” Schwarber said. “You just want to feel like you are pouring everything you have into your team.”
Harper hopes Schwarber’s third round of free agency ends with him coming back home.
“He’s one of the better guys I’ve ever played with,” Harper said. “I can’t see him in any other uniform. I think he deserves to be here.”