The 2025 Major League Baseball season hasn’t even gotten underway. Heck, we’re still a week away from the start of spring training, but many of us are already eyeing some impending massive changes for this Philadelphia Phillies ball club down the road.
With designated hitter Kyle Schwarber among the handful of key Phillies players who will hit free agency next offseason, his future with the club has been a popular topic recently. He’ll turn 32 before Opening Day but is going to be a valuable option on the free agent market next winter thanks to his combination of home run power and ability to get on base with a keen eye at the plate, despite being a DH.
Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. lays out best options for keeping Kyle Schwarber
On a recent episode of The Phillies Show podcast, former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. offered his thoughts on the team’s concerns about and options for keeping Schwarber.
“I think it’s a wait-and-see,” Amaro said. “I’d love to sign the guy, and if they can get him done at a reasonable number, I think that they’ll consider it, but I think the concern with them would be the length of the contract and also how it might affect their overall budget as far as the luxury tax.”
Schwarber is looking at a raise from his current $20 million annual salary ($19.75 million for luxury tax purposes), per Phillies Nation’s Destiny Lugardo, which makes sense.
He’s the Phillies’ reigning home run king, with 131 dingers in 465 games. He has an .832 OPS in three seasons with the Phillies. He’s a respected and integral veteran leader in the clubhouse. All signs point to the Phillies being in a position where they almost have to bring him back, and they obviously would want to, but with a projected raise in free agency, how can they get it done?
“So I got to believe that they would certainly consider keeping Kyle here,” Amaro said. “He means so much to the team, but I think it’s going to have to be one of those deals where it’s going to have to be short enough for them to make sure that they maximize his ability to contribute to the team. I know he’s just the DH and not having to play the outfield now, and so it’s a dicey one.”
What might a Kyle Schwarber extension look like?
Amaro offered a path for the Phillies that might work, if Schwarber really wants to stay in Philadelphia.
“It’ll be a tough one, and a lot of it depends on how much Kyle Schwarber wants to stay around,” Amaro said. “I mean, if he can do a deal or they can do a deal, a Zack Wheeler-esque type length, right, that’s only three years, or something like that, maybe so. Otherwise, I think they’ll just wait it out and then see what happens at the end of the year.”
Last spring, the Phillies inked Wheeler to a three-year, $126 million extension that kicks in this season. That was a case in which the Phillies’ hand was forced into locking up one of the top starters in baseball and not letting him get anywhere near free agency.
Schwarber is not Wheeler, obviously, but losing him would leave a gaping hole at the top of the lineup.
Lugardo has also previously pointed to Joc Pederson’s two-year, $37 million free agent deal this offseason as the minimum starting point for Schwarber next winter. He should get more per year, especially if he has a good 2025 campaign. Lugardo suggests a two-year, $50 million deal with a club option for 2028 as a possible framework for an extension.
Like most Phillies fans, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that when news starts filtering out of training camp next week, one of the sound bites we hear is president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski telling us that they’re working on an extension for Schwarber.
