Kyle Schwarber has exceeded expectations as a slugger, leader with the Phillies. Will that result in a return?

LOS ANGELES — The bottom lip on Kyle Schwarber’s face quivered as he faced the harsh reality, forced to reckon with the fact that he may have played his last inning of Philadelphia Phillies baseball. The slugger helped usher in a new era in franchise history when he arrived in 2022, a magical season that ended in a World Series appearance.

Since then, Schwarber has grown and developed into one of the most feared power hitters in all of Major League Baseball. The Phillies, meanwhile, have shifted from the plucky upstarts into supposed championship contenders, with expectations as high as any team around.

It’s been a consequential four years for both parties, and each benefited from having one another. But after the latest postseason failure, a National League Division Series loss to Los Angeles that culminated in a shocking extra-inning defeat on Thursday night, there’s nothing guaranteed for this partnership as Schwarber is destined for free agency.

“It doesn’t feel good,” Schwarber said in front of his locker at Dodger Stadium. “You just make a lot of different relationships in the clubhouse, and you never know how it’s going to work out, right? You make personal relationships with guys. You spend how much time with these guys throughout the course of a year, and they become family. You just never know how it goes.”

The offense sputtered once again in a brutal Game 4 for the Phillies. They ended up on the wrong side of a pitchers’ duel as reliever Orion Kerkering panicked with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning, throwing away Philadelphia’s last chance to keep the series alive and handing the Dodgers a 2-1 win.

The club is now at a crossroads, a point where it must decide how to move forward in the midst of organizational stagnation. Players like Bryce Harper and Trea Turner are locked in on long-term contracts, while Schwarber, catcher J.T. Realmuto and Ranger Suárez are free agents. Outfielder Nick Castellanos has one more year left on his deal, but could be a trade candidate after a career-worst showing. Manager Rob Thomson, once the man who took over and turned around that 2022 season, could be a casualty of the early exit. The Phillies will need to decide who’s worth keeping and where they can improve after winning the National League East, then falling in the NLDS for a second consecutive year.

“I do know that we’ve had four chances to win a World Series,” Castellanos said, “and we were the closest in 2022, and then we fell shorter, and then we fell shorter and we finished the exact same as last year. It’s unfortunate, because I think that we have the most talented team in baseball and we did not play up to what we’re capable of.”

On March 21, 2022, the Phillies held a press conference at their training facility in Clearwater, Fla., to introduce Schwarber once he officially signed a four-year free-agent contract. The left-handed hitter spoke about the 108-year World Series drought that the Chicago Cubs snapped when they won it all in 2016, sparked in part by Schwarber’s legendary performance after tearing his ACL earlier that very season.

Philadelphia had its own streak of disappointment in the form of a 10-year absence from the playoffs. Upon joining the Phillies, Schwarber mentioned that snapping the streak would be something the club would play for that season, and the team felt that his entrance could guide the Phillies to October.

“We’re very happy to have him on board,” Phillies president Dave Dombrowski told reporters at the time. “He brings a lot to our ballclub, not only from an offensive perspective, but from a teammate, makeup perspective that I think is so important for us, with our organization, to put a winning, championship-caliber club on the field.”

Schwarber has now hit 187 home runs in four regular seasons with the Phillies, including 56 in a career-best 2025. He played in all 162 games (mostly as the designated hitter), had a .928 OPS and drove in a big-league-leading 132 runs this season. The power was as good as advertised the moment Schwarber came to Philadelphia, but he batted .218 and .197 in his first two years with the team. He’s made adjustments and become a significantly improved all-around hitter in the last pair of seasons.

Additionally, Schwarber has emerged as a crucial leader in the clubhouse during his Phillies tenure. The club has cultivated a culture of success with the three-time All-Star in the middle of it. It’s not a quality that’s easy to replace.

“Schwarbs is obviously one of our team leaders, cornerstones of this organization,” Harper said on Thursday. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happens or what goes into this offseason or where we go from here.”

Harper said Thursday that retaining Realmuto and Schwarber would be the “main conversation” of the winter for the Phillies. But following Game 4, the uncertainty of the situation was apparent. Castellanos and Realmuto sat next to each other for an extended one-on-one conversation. A circle of teammates formed around Schwarber as he sank into his chair in the corner of the visitors’ clubhouse with a Modelo in hand.

“These guys all know how I feel about them,” Schwarber said. “I 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 you’re playing for a team that is trying to win every single year, and you have a fanbase that cares and you have ownership that cares. You have coaches that care. You have everyone in a room that cares, and there’s no other reason.

“We’re all about winning. It’s a great thing, and I think that’s why it hurts just as much as any other year.”

By all accounts, the Phillies want to keep Schwarber for next year and beyond. But that may cost a steep price after an outstanding season on the plate. Will a lucrative, multiyear deal for a DH who will turn 33 next March be the right choice for a Phillies team that isn’t getting any younger? That’s for Dombrowski and company to decide. It could be risky, but there’s not a hitter better than Schwarber out there this offseason.

It’s fair to wonder if the Phillies could use some change, something to freshen up a group that’s become stale in the postseason. But at the same time, the status quo seems a lot more appealing than a good deal of the alternatives when you think about them a step further. Allowing Schwarber, the face of the Phillies this year who had an up-and-down NLDS, to walk and pivoting elsewhere would provide the biggest shift. It doesn’t sound as promising for the Phillies as just having Schwarber in the lineup and in the clubhouse.

Schwarber’s contributions — both on and off the field — will likely have him returning to the Phillies, who don’t really have a comparable replacement. But the veteran will surely have other suitors as well. Nothing will be done until the ink is on the paper.

“I’ve always said there’s going to be mutual interest between both of us, so we’ll see where that takes off,” Schwarber said. “I’ve seen a lot of different things in the game, but I’m looking forward to seeing when, when a conversation will be had, and going from there.”