After career year, Kyle Schwarber is on a quest to be a ‘complete hitter’

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber is not taking his success for granted. 

Coming off 56 home runs and a second-place finish in National League MVP voting, Schwarber is faced with the challenge of staying on top. 

Schwarber has lived many baseball lives. Drafted as a catcher, he hasn’t played a game at the position since 2017. He tore his ACL in his second major league season, and beat an impossible timeline to make it back for the World Series. Non-tendered after the 2020 season with the Cubs, Schwarber revitalized his career with a big season in Washington and Boston in 2021.

Even over his four-year career in Philly, Schwarber has evolved. In his first two seasons, Schwarber hit 45-plus home runs, but batted a combined .207. For much of the 2023 season, he played left field with one good knee. He was also the epitome of the three-true outcomes hitter that year: 55% of his plate appearances in 2023 ended in either a home run, walk or strikeout. His .197 batting average and being the league leader in strikeouts in back-to-back years didn’t sit well with him. 

So Schwarber went to work to change that. He has kept his strikeout total under 200 in each of the last two years. His batting average has also hovered around .240, as he has converted enough of those strikeouts into base hits. He reached another level last year, when he nearly broke Ryan Howard’s Phillies franchise record in home runs in a season. 

No left-handed hitter in the league last year saw more left-on-left pitches than Schwarber. He broke the record for most home runs (23) as a left-handed hitter against left-handed pitching. Only Cody Bellinger of the Yankees posted a higher wRC+ against lefties than Schwarber.

So what’s in store for Schwarber’s second act? He has five years on his new contract to add to his already impressive resume. 

“Well, he wants to hit .270,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said. “He wants to be a complete hitter. You know, the .240, .250, he’s obviously pleased with that. He feels like there is room for improvement, as far as being a better, more complete average hitter. He always talks about cutting down his strikeouts.” 

Could Schwarber go from below the Mendoza line to competing for a batting title? He has made the impossible obtainable before. 

“Last year, I had a really good year,” Schwarber said. “But, it’s not like I went out there and said ‘I’m going to hit (56) home runs. I’m gonna do this or that or whatever it is.’ And I’ve been doing the same thing this year. It’s like ‘OK, you have to look at your last year and obviously there’s good things, but there are still things that you can address and try to be better at.’”

Schwarber in 2025 killed fastballs. Before the season began, Long challenged Schwarber to hit .300 against the pitch. Statcast had him as a .307 hitter against fastballs in 2025. Of his 56 home runs, 35 came against fastballs. Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh were the only hitters in MLB last year to hit more home runs on fastballs than Schwarber. 

“We had one goal as far as fastball hitting,” Long said. “We wanted him to hit .300 on fastballs. He was hitting .220, .225, .215, there was no reason why this guy shouldn’t be a .300 hitter on fastballs.” 

“I think it was the last three years, I didn’t really hit great on fastballs,” Schwarber said. “It was just kind of a number, obtainable goal that K-Long threw at me and I said, ‘All right.’ … Now, the league is going to adjust to different things.” 

Schwarber is always trying to think ahead. In 2025, Schwarber had the highest barrel percentage in his career at 20.8%, meaning that just over 20% of balls he put in play were hit on the barrel of the bat. He also recorded his highest hard-hit rate (59.6%) and pulled fly ball percentage (31.1%) of his career. Those underlying metrics indicate Schwarber was at his best. 

While a barrelled up fly ball in the air hit at an exit velocity over 95 mph is the ideal batted ball outcome for Schwarber, he wonders if there is an advantage to using other parts of the bat. 

Schwarber gave this example: Say a pitcher is attacking him inside. If he’s late, the instinct is to push his hands back to give himself more time to flick his wrist and get the barrel on the ball. The swing could result in a barrel (a good thing), but it’s a pulled ground ball to second base for an out (a bad thing). 

Being able to “trust” other parts of his bat could lead to a bloop hit, even if he’s a little late or a little early. 

“You have to trust yourself that that swing might produce, you know, something that could go over a fielder’s head versus something that’s just gonna be on the ground and something easier for them to field,” Schwarber said. “So those are just kind of different things that we talked about, just trying to trust your swing and knowing that even if I’m late, I’m gonna give myself the best possible chance to stay through the middle of the field.” 

It’s all part of his quest to be a complete hitter, though you can argue that he is already pretty close to being one.

“I think that’s just the natural thing, right? Like, the game’s always evolving and I feel like you have to keep trying to evolve with the game as well,” Schwarber said.