Schwarber In Contention for NL MVP With Free Agency Pending

PHOENIX – Kyle Schwarber is a pending free agent—and he’s having a career season at just the right time.

The 33-year-old National League MVP candidate is one of the top hitters available on the upcoming market. He boasts a Major League Baseball-leading 129 RBIs, and with 53 homers so far this season, he’s only the second player on the Philadelphia Phillies to hit 50 homers in a season. Ryan Howard owns the Phillies homer record with 58 collected in 2004.

“[Schwarber’s] had by far the best season of his career,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said in an interview this weekend at Chase Field, where the National League East winners dropped two of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks. “It’s an MVP-type season for an MVP-type person.”

Schwarber was voted MVP of the All-Star Game in Atlanta on July 15 when he came off the bench to win the first home-run swing-off in All-Star history, deciding the game for the NL.

“He’s impressive,” D-backs starting pitcher Zac Gallen said. “His season has been unbelievable. Every time he’s in the batter’s box, he’s a threat to leave the ballpark.”

Schwarber is among the greatest players in recent Phillies history, joining the likes of Howard, Mike Schmidt, Jimmie Rollins, Chase Utley and Bryce Harper.

“It’s an honor, it’s a privilege to be compared with them,” Schwarber said in an interview. “It’s something you don’t take for granted. All of it. My mind doesn’t process it really well because I’m so attuned to what we’re going through right now.”

Schwarber will hit free agency along with Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Tucker, New York Mets’ Pete Alonso, Boston Red Sox’s Alex Bregman, New York Yankees’ Cody Bellinger and Toronto Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette as the top hitters on the market.

Alonso, Bregman and Bellinger—all Scott Boras clients—can exercise player options for 2026 built into their respective contracts without the burden of the qualifying offer affecting their free agency again. There’s no double jeopardy as far as the qualifying offer is concerned; a player can’t be tagged with it twice.

Schwarber, in contrast, was not tagged with the qualifying offer in his first two runs at free agency in 2020 and 2021. But this time, he will certainly get one from the Philles, who’ve made it clear they want to re-sign him, though there have been no substantive talks since spring training.

“We need no motivation when it comes to [signing] Kyle Schwarber,” Phillies owner John Middleton recently told a group of media. “He’s great. We thought he was great when we signed him years ago. He’s been great for us ever since. We love him. We want to keep him.”

The Phillies signed Schwarber to a four-year, $79 million contract prior to the 2022 season, a bargain as the prices on the market have grown ever since. Prior to Philadelphia, Schwarber played briefly for the Nationals and the Red Sox, and he was just a kid with the 2016 Chicago Cubs when they won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.

“Pretty much my entire tenure with the Cubs prepared me for where I am now,” he said.

Schwarber will have three problems to overcome this time around in free agency: his age, his lack of flexibility defensively and the qualifying offer.

Schwarber is well into his 30s, and teams recently haven’t signed players of his age to long-term, big money deals. For example, Joc Pederson, a left-handed DH, and a recent World Series winner in Los Angeles and Atlanta, signed with Texas this past winter for two years at $37 million heading into his age 33 season. The above offensive players on the market are all younger.

On the field, Schwarber is also full-time left-handed designated hitter, while the other free agents on the market excel at their various defensive positions. He’s only started 13 games in left field since 2023 and eight this season, DH-ing 291 times including 144 this season. 

If Schwarber is anxious about all of this he’s not acting like it. His focus is not on free agency.

“For me here it’s just about trying to help the team,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of success the last three years and that’s the best part about it. We all have expectations for each other. We all hold us accountable for how we play and go about preparing for it.”

The MVP races in both leagues have come down to four magnificent players: Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani in the NL, Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh in the American League.

Ohtani and Judge are the favorites; as defending MVP holders, they should repeat. Ohtani will continue to do so as long as he pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers and hits 50 homers. He has 53 at this writing, a 180 OPS+ and 7.2 WAR.

Judge is out of this world playing right field and DHing for the New York Yankees with 49 homers, a Major League-leading .326 batting average, a 209 OPS+ and a 9 WAR. 

Raleigh set records for a catcher and switch-hitter this season with 58 homers for the Seattle Mariners. 

Schwarber? He has a slim chance of winning in the NL with his 149 OPS+ and 4.4 WAR, but will get plenty of votes.

“I always say any time there’s a personal feat I’ll think about that when I’m done,” he said. “That’s when I can sit back, probably have about 20 beers, and look at my career when it’s over and, go ‘Wow, you got to accomplish a lot of really cool things.’”