There’s this notion right now that if Kyle Schwarber keeps hitting like this, he just might make a run at Shohei Ohtani for the National League’s MVP Award. But the notion might actually be upside down, even if Ohtani is having himself another time. I believe that the way The Schwarb is going, Ohtani and everybody else might be chasing him the rest of the way.
Schwarber now has one more home run than Ohtani with 40, and leads baseball with 94 RBIs. He might get to 100 RBIs before the weekend is over. No one has been more important to his team than Schwarber has been to the first-place Phillies in this season when he’s moving up on free agency.
He has now hit 40 or more homers in three of his four seasons in Philadelphia. And if he wasn’t a rock star before this season, he has officially become one now. In the time of Ohtani and Aaron Judge -- and with Cal Raleigh, the home run leader with 42, doing what he’s doing with the Mariners -- Schwarber has become every bit as much a dangerous and must-see at-bat as any of them.
It figures that with Ohtani and Judge unavailable for the swing-off at the end of the All-Star Game, it was Schwarber who became MVP as he hit those balls into the Atlanta night to win the game for the National League. And you know something? He made that ending as much fun – and maybe more fun – than those other guys might have.
It was nuts to see the Cubs non-tender him following the 2020 season. And also surprising when the Red Sox let him walk away after a ’21 season, when he tried to help slug them back to the World Series. It will be amazing if the Phillies let this impending free agent walk away when this season is over. He does not just continue to be one of the most dynamic hitters around. He just might be the most colorful.
He obviously can’t do everything Ohtani can. He can’t pitch. But the Phillies are perfectly content to just let Kyle Schwarber do Kyle Schwarber. He has become just as big a star in Philly as Bryce Harper, which is saying plenty. Now he tries to help his team win the World Series the way he did for the Cubs back in 2016.
In so many ways, that was when the legend of Schwarber really began. He tore up his knee in April of that year and still made it back for one of the most storied World Series in all of baseball history. Schwarber only played in two regular-season games in ’16. But he sure played five games out of the seven in the World Series, had seven hits in 17 at-bats and batted .412. He walked three times and scored two runs and knocked in two and had an on-base percentage of .500. Six months after reconstructive surgery to repair a torn ACL and LCL ligaments, he did all that.
“He’ll dominate this rehab,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said in April of 2016.
Schwarber did exactly that. Still dominating at only 32 years of age. He is a year younger than Judge. Just a year older than Ohtani. Both of them keep on keeping on. So, too, does Schwarber. Two years ago he had one of the truly crazy stat lines ever:
A .197 batting average. 47 home runs. 104 RBIs. 108 runs scored. 215 strikeouts. 126 walks. Put it this way: It was the same then as it is now for him. When he did put his bat on the ball, he got his money’s worth. So did we. And still do.
The other night he hit two more home runs, one a grand slam, as the Phillies put it on the Orioles. Schwarber heard “MVP” chants all night long, the way he will be hearing them from Phillies fans the rest of the way. He was asked afterward about at least having a chance at Ryan Howard’s all-time Phillies home run record of 58 if he stays hot.
“I’m not trying to go out there and think about records or anything like that,” Schwarber said. “I’m just trying to go out on a daily basis and try to help these guys. If [breaking Howard’s record] happens, it’s great. If it doesn’t, it’s great.”
He’s great to watch this season. He’s been great to watch for a while. He didn’t get cheated when he was a kid with the Cubs and he doesn’t get cheated now. Two off Raleigh’s home run lead going into the weekend. Leading the pack at RBIs. Looking as if he can at least get to 50 homers this time, which is where both Ohtani and Judge were a year ago.
Rob Thomson said something the other night he’s said a lot about Schwarber since becoming the Phillies manager:
“He’s unbelievable.”
Ohtani has already won three MVP Awards. He’s doing all manner of Ohtani things again this season, including pitch again. His on-base percentage is .381 this season, he’s slugging .606, his OPS is .987. Schwarber’s on-base is .379, he’s slugging .585, his OPS is .964. Forty homers for Schwarber, 39 for Ohtani. Both of them on first-place teams. This time the MVP isn’t a foregone conclusion for Ohtani. Game on.