Potential contingency plans for Phillies if another team woos Schwarber

Difficult as it may be to consider, there is a real possibility that a team other than the Phillies swoops in to make Kyle Schwarber an offer he can’t refuse this offseason.

He turns 33 in March, he’s a designated hitter, but those factors will mitigate his price tag only partially. Despite his age and lack of positional versatility, he’s coming off the two best seasons of his career and is one of the biggest offensive game-changers in all of baseball. Fifty-six home runs and 132 RBIs make up for plenty. All you have to do is peruse Schwarber’s 2025 game log to be reminded that he had only two minor slumps all season, never went more than 10 games without a homer and was the Phillies’ most impactful hitter dozens of nights.

MLB’s Winter Meetings begin Sunday in Orlando and run through Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft. Schwarber, as he already has, will garner plenty of attention. Like I wrote back in August when projecting Schwarber’s next contract at $155-185 million over five years, it’s not just the major-market teams that will be in on him. The Cincinnati Reds, for example, continue to draw connections to the Middletown, Ohio native.

So what happens if the Phillies are unable to re-sign their 2025 MVP? How do you go about replacing that much run production? Let’s sift through a few potential backup plans:

Sign Pete Alonso

This would be the most straightforward Plan B. Alonso is two years younger than Schwarber and does play a position, albeit one where the Phillies already have Bryce Harper. Alonso has played 162 games two seasons in a row, led the National League with 41 doubles in 2025 and hit a career-high .272 with 38 homers and 126 RBI. In terms of raw power, there are few players alive with as much as Schwarber or Alonso.

The Phillies, in this scenario, could split first base duty between Harper and Alonso, DH’ing the other one. Or they could maybe, just maybe, move Harper back to the outfield temporarily. Speaking about Alonso, Harper did tell The Athletic last summer that he would have been willing to move back to the outfield for the right addition.

The baseball world seems to think Alonso will earn slightly less than Schwarber, but who knows? They’ll almost be setting the market for one another, a la Harper and Manny Machado in 2019, albeit to a lesser extent.

Signing Alonso would have the added benefit of weakening the Mets, who would like to bring him back. And it would also give the Phillies better left-right balance since Alonso is a right-handed hitter and the Phillies have skewed left for a few years.

The big question is who the better bet will be over the next five years: the 32-year-old, seemingly ascending Schwarber, or the 30-year-old Alonso, who also just completed arguably his best season.

Shift to the top non-sluggers

The Phillies have expressed interest in Diamondbacks star second baseman Ketel Marte, according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.

They’ve shown interest in versatile lefty-swinging Cody Bellinger, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Marte is a worthwhile trade candidate no matter what else the Phillies do this offseason, but a player of his caliber would become even more important if Schwarber walks. Simply put, Harper needs offensive threats around him to prevent opposing managers from taking him out of the game with consistent pitch-arounds.

Bellinger would probably make sense only as a Plan B to Schwarber; it’s difficult to envision the Phillies doling out a combined $300 million to sign both, which would also increase their left-handedness.

Bellinger is a much different player than Schwarber or Alonso. You’d be expecting more batting average, more speed, more defense, fewer home runs and significantly fewer strikeouts. He has averaged just 89 whiffs per season the last three. Bellinger is eight months younger than Alonso, can play all three outfield positions in addition to first base, and is likely looking at a contract in the five-year, $150 million vicinity himself. The Yankees will try hard to re-sign him.

Third baseman Alex Bregman is also back out on the free-agent market after opting out with the Red Sox. He did so to cash in and could end up signing for even more than Schwarber, Alonso and Bellinger. Bregman would be a clear upgrade over Alec Bohm, but the Phillies would then need to secure the worthwhile trade offer for Bohm they’ve yet to find.

Pivot to pitching?

This would probably be the least exciting fallback plan for fans who have witnessed the Phillies’ offense fall flat during early playoff exits two Octobers in a row. But oftentimes when a team can’t add the run production it needs, it pivots to run prevention.

In the Phillies’ case, if they were to lose out on all of Schwarber, Alonso, Bellinger, Bregman and Marte, perhaps the pivot would be to further fortify the rotation and bullpen. That could mean making the push to re-sign Ranger Suarez that many have assumed the Phillies will not. It could mean making a play at Framber Valdez or Zac Gallen. It could mean adding a second stud reliever to set up for Jhoan Duran like Robert Suarez or Edwin Diaz. This was part of the breakdown from Dave Dombrowski last December after the Phillies traded for Jesus Luzardo at a time when starting pitching was not viewed as the first or second area of need.

Even if they do end up going the run prevention route, though, the Phillies shouldn’t expect to be legitimate World Series contenders in 2026 if the offense loses Schwarber (and potentially J.T. Realmuto and Harrison Bader as well) while doing little to replace them. The front office knows this, obviously, and has no delusions about the pieces needed. Hopefully, the week in Orlando provides some clarity.