Bryce Harper on Kyle Schwarber: ‘I don’t see him playing anywhere else’
Schwarber is setting himself up well for free agency. Harper told Phillies Extra from The Inquirer that he hopes the DH never gets the chance to leave. “He brings so much value to our team.”
Seven weeks ago, the Phillies put Kyle Schwarber behind Bryce Harper in the batting order to dissuade opponents from pitching around Harper as frequently.
It seems to be working.
But what if Schwarber isn’t here to protect Harper next season? The slugging designated hitter is playing out the final year of his contract, and with 18 homers through 54 games, he’s setting himself up well in free agency.
» READ MORE: Can Kyle Schwarber hit 500 home runs? It’s not that far-fetched. Here’s how he can get there.
“I don’t see him playing anywhere else,” Harper said on the latest edition of Phillies Extra, the baseball show from The Inquirer that dropped Thursday. “Obviously I don’t make those decisions. But as a team leader and a captain and everything else, he brings so much value to our team.”
The Phillies signed Schwarber to a four-year, $79 million contract before the 2022 season. Since then, he has hit 149 homers, ranking third in baseball behind Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.
Other than Ohtani, a unicorn as a two-way player, a DH has never landed a nine-figure contract in free agency. But Schwarber also is getting better with age. At 32, he has mastered hitting same-side pitching, batting above .300 against left-handers. He also has hiked his overall average by using more of the field and striking out less.
“I have so much respect for Kyle and what he’s done in this game,” Harper said in a wide-ranging 40-minute interview last weekend, before he took a 95-mph fastball off his elbow Tuesday night. “He’s become just such an impact bat, not just for our team but in all of baseball. He can hit a lefty, he can hit a righty, [hit] for power, everything else, so it’s been fun to watch. It’s been fun to be able to talk to him about things. I’m still trying to talk to him about how to pull a baseball into the seats.”
» READ MORE: The numbers behind Kyle Schwarber's road to the 300-homer club
Last week, Schwarber crushed a ball off the facing of the right-field upper deck at Coors Field in Denver — 466 feet from home plate, according to Statcast — to become the 11th active player with 300 career homers.
“What a moment he had in Colorado,” said Harper, who has 344 career homers. “Just really cool for him. Happy for him, man. And I know he’s going to hit many more.”
Can Schwarber get to 500?
“It’s obviously a big number, but I think he’s one of the guys that can do it,” Harper said. “He walks a lot, so I think that might hurt him a little bit. That’s not a bad thing, right? But guys that walk a lot, it’s really tough to be able to kind of even that out. But he hits enough homers. I think he’s really going to have a chance at it.”
Schwarber’s value extends into the clubhouse. Harper is the Phillies’ best player, but Schwarber is the de facto captain, a steadying presence with the gravitas of having made the playoffs in all but one of his 10 major league seasons.
» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber is better than ever at 32. Here’s how the slugger evolved into a ‘complete hitter.’
“He’s learned from a lot of really good guys, from Jon Lester to [John] Lackey to [Ryan] Dempster to all these other guys like [Jake] Arrieta,” Harper said. “He’s just learned such a good way of bringing a team together. He does such a great job of that.”
Well, except for one thing.
“He really hogs that DH spot, though, I can tell you that,” Harper said, laughing. “But he’s great, man. It’s been so much fun to watch.”