Kyle Schwarber is better than ever at 32. Here’s how the slugger evolved into a ‘complete hitter.’

It has been a while — four years, to be precise — but Zack Wheeler remembers looking in at home plate and seeing Kyle Schwarber staring back at him.

“He could hit a fastball,” Wheeler recalled over the weekend in Cleveland. “If you made a mistake over the middle, he was probably going to hit it well.”

Indeed, Schwarber has never not been a dangerous hitter.

But he’s oh-so-much better now.

» READ MORE: Nobody is seeing fewer strikes than Bryce Harper. Can the Phillies' star do more with less?

It isn’t merely that he muscled the Phillies to a 3-0 victory Sunday night with a towering solo home run in the second inning and a two-run shot in the eighth. Or that he ended the weekend tied with Aaron Judge for the major-league lead with 14 homers, two shy of becoming the 11th active player to reach 300 for his career.

Schwarber always slugged, with tales of legendary tape-measure blasts in college at Indiana preceding him to the majors 10 years ago. But did you notice that he reached base in his 47th consecutive game Monday night, the fourth-longest streak in Phillies history? Or that he had entered Monday 16-for-50 (.320) with a 1.252 OPS against left-handed pitchers, validating his left-on-left .300 average and .898 OPS last season?

It’s almost hard to believe it’s the same Schwarber who was lost against lefties early in his career, got let go by the Cubs in 2020, and batted .197 while leading the majors with 215 strikeouts for the Phillies two years ago.

“I see him now as a complete hitter,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I really do. He obviously has big-time power. But it’s so impressive because he takes what the other team gives him. If they want to pitch around him and try to nibble, he’ll take his walks. He’ll take his base hits. And when they pitch to him, he’ll put the ball in the seats. He’s been on a really great run.”

Dare we say that Schwarber is better now, at age 32, than he was at 23, when he helped the Cubs bust their 108-year World Series hex ... or at 29, when he signed with the Phillies and led the NL with 46 homers?

Schwarber’s evolution is relevant because he’s eligible for free agency after the season at a time when the market isn’t especially kind to 30-something sluggers without much use for a glove.

Look no further than Pete Alonso. The Mets star hit the market last winter with the second-most homers of any player since 2019. But because he turned 30 in December, and is regarded as a below-average first baseman, and received the free-agent qualifying offer, his nine-figure expectations turned into a two-year, $54 million contract to return to New York with an opt-out to go back on the market after one season.

Schwarber is nearly two years older than Alonso and provides even less value as a defender. Surely, he must have watched Alonso’s uncomfortable free-agent experience and wondered if that’s what awaits him.

“Good question,” Schwarber recently said on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball show. “I feel like I live on a daily basis, just like trying to get through the day and go from there. But this is where I feel like I’ve truly gotten to be myself and be the player I’m able to be.

“I feel like there’s still a better version in the tank. I’m going to keep trying to make adjustments on a yearly basis. Hopefully, those adjustments keep getting me better and better and better to where it’s kind of flipping the script. With age comes a decline, right? I want it to be the opposite way for me.”

» READ MORE: Bryson Stott has thrived in the leadoff spot for the Phillies: ‘He sets the tone’

There are reasons to believe Schwarber will delay what he calls “the inevitability of age.” Start with his bat speed. He gets his barrel through the zone at an average of 76.5 mph, according to Statcast, eighth-best in the majors and consistent with his 77.5 and 77.1 mph averages over the last two seasons.

And then there’s his production against lefties. Through nine seasons, from 2015 to 2023, he was a .204 hitter with a .702 OPS against left-handed pitching. Since then, he has batted .304 with a .966 OPS.

“Most guys, when they enter the league and when they leave the league, they’re kind of the same guy,” Thomson said. “You don’t see pure power hitters becoming really good hitters, you know? I don’t think it happens a whole lot.”

Thomson recalled a similarly drastic left-on-left improvement. Curtis Granderson went from batting .183 with a .484 OPS against lefties with the Tigers in 2009 to .234/.647 with the Yankees in 2010 and .272/.944 in 2011.

Granderson’s hitting coach in New York: Kevin Long, now with the Phillies.

“Schwarber is one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever been around,” said Long, who also worked with Schwarber with the Nationals in 2021. “If you tell him he can’t do something, he’s going to do it.

“He was going to be a platoon guy in Washington. He was not going to hit against lefties. I said, ‘You’re going to have to work at it because right now, if I was the manager, you’re going to have to show me that you can put together really good at-bats.’ So, what does he do? He works his tail off and he gets it done.”

» READ MORE: Mentor, mood-setter, bowling team manager: The Garrett Stubbs Experience is a hit at Lehigh Valley

It’s typical for Schwarber, according to Long. In 2023, Schwarber led the majors in two-strike counts (443). He cut the number to 388 last season and increased his batting average from .197 to .248.

“I feel like I’ve definitely progressed on some things I wanted to progress on,” Schwarber said. “When you hit in the offseason, you’ve got those things that you want to work on and keep trying to make yourself better and better and better.”

Maybe it will even lead to the $100 million contract that eluded Alonso, Teoscar Hernández (three years/$66 million from the Dodgers), and other recent bat-first sluggers in their 30s.

“He’s gotten better as the years have gone on,” Wheeler said. “He knows himself. He’s doing better this year with his walks and strikeouts. It’s always about evolving and trying to get better as a player, and he’s doing that. He’s a really good hitter. It’s fun to watch.”

As long as you don’t have to face him.