ORLANDO, Fla. — Slugger Kyle Schwarber and the Philadelphia Phillies are finalizing a five-year, $150 million contract, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, reuniting the National League home run leader and the franchise with whom he blossomed into a perennial MVP candidate.
Following a frenzied free agency that saw efforts to sign Schwarber by the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and even small-market teams in Pittsburgh and his hometown Cincinnati, a late push by Philadelphia secured the 32-year-old a rare big-money, long-term deal for a designated hitter.
Coming off a division series loss to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Phillies balked at life without Schwarber, their clear clubhouse leader and a highly respected figure in the game. His propensity for clutch hits buoyed Philadelphia in 2025, when he finished second in MVP voting after hitting .240/.365/.563 with 56 home runs and an NL-leading 132 RBIs.
Schwarber has been a model of slugging consistency since joining the Phillies in 2022 on a four-year, $79 million deal, hitting at least 38 home runs in each of his four seasons. This year, he played all 162 games for the first time in his career, became the 21st player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a game and was one of just five players with at least 100 walks.
Beyond his prodigious power, Schwarber is regarded as a titan in the Phillies’ locker room, a reputation that made him even more appealing to teams as he nearly doubled the guarantee from his last foray into free agency. Aging DHs rarely get multiyear deals on the open market, let alone ones at $30 million a year, but Schwarber was an outlier in multiple regardless.
The three-time All-Star found the best version of himself in his 30s after winning the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs and getting non-tendered by them before spending 2021 with the Nationals and Red Sox. Seen as a one-dimensional player then, Schwarber went to Philadelphia and turned into much more, destroying left-handed pitching that teams deployed to neutralize his powerful left-handed swing.
In his four years with the Phillies, Schwarber hit 14 home runs in 38 postseason games and was a constant on-base threat near the top of Philadelphia’s lineup. Six of the home runs came during Philadelphia’s run to the 2022 World Series, where it lost in six games to Houston. While Philadelphia entered the offseason looking to retool a team that stalled out in the playoffs, losing Schwarber proved too difficult to stomach, even with the cadre of teams pursuing him.
With Alex Bregman hitting free agency after one year in Boston and Pete Alonso opting out of his deal with the Mets, both teams considered adding Schwarber to their lineup. Baltimore made a strong push, sources said, as did Pittsburgh, which offered a high-dollar four-year deal that would have more than tripled its previous largest contract given out in free agency.
Cincinnati, the dark horse because of its need for a power bat and its appeal to Schwarber — who grew up about 30 minutes outside of the city — did not meet the financial demands others were willing to.
Ultimately, it led to opportunity for the Phillies to strike and retain a fearsome top of the order, with leadoff hitter Trea Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper. How Philadelphia navigates the rest of the winter — with longtime catcher J.T. Realmuto reaching free agency, multiple every-day players who are trade candidates and talented prospects Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford on the cusp of the big leagues — will be among the most fascinating storylines over the winter.
The Phillies won the NL East division for the second consecutive season in 2025, winning the second-most games in MLB before running into a Dodgers team that ousted them following an 11th-inning error in Game 4 of the division series. Upon the completion of the World Series, Philadelphia made re-signing Schwarber its clear priority.
His signing is expected to accelerate a free agent market that, to this point, has moved slowly. The majority of top free agents in both the hitting (Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette, Munetaka Murakami, Bregman and Alonso) and pitching (Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suarez, Michael King and Zac Gallen) markets remain available.
In 11 seasons since the Cubs drafted him with the fourth overall pick out of Indiana University, Schwarber has hit .231/.346/.500 with 340 home runs, 784 RBIs and 800 runs scored, twice leading the NL in home runs.
