Kyle Schwarber is going to enter free agency at exactly the right time. He's coming off the best season of his career in 2025, putting up 56 home runs and 132 runs batted in for the Philadelphia Phillies. He may have had his fair share of struggles during the postseason as the Phillies got bounced in the NLDS, but that should not affect his stock in free agency one bit.
What would affect his stock in free agency is how teams view his potential aging curve. Will Schwarber be able to keep up this level of production even when he's already 32 years of age? Teams, including the Phillies, will certainly be wary of a potential sharp decline from Schwarber at the plate, which would erase any sort of value he'd provide to whichever ballclub signs him to a big-money contract.
However, MLB Network insider Jon Morosi believes that the Phillies slugger will be able to age gracefully, even comparing him to David Ortiz in the process.
“He is one of the premier players, all-around, in Major League Baseball right now. He is going to be paid like it,” Morosi said of Schwarber. “He is someone that I believe is gonna be a really solid contributor and player for a long time into the future. I look at his 30s as being similar to David Ortiz's 30s and what he's going to be able to do. Kyle Schwarber is going to set some records this winter [in terms of contract for a DH].”
“I look at his 30s as being similar to David Ortiz's 30s and what he's going to be able to do…”
– @jonmorosi on Kyle Schwarber pic.twitter.com/fbGvYyXM9s
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 9, 2025
Ortiz was a productive DH until his very last at-bat in the majors; can Schwarber follow a similar path, and will it be with the Phillies?
Do Phillies believe that Kyle Schwarber will age gracefully?
Just to put in perspective how well Ortiz aged, he put up a .925 OPS to go with 252 home runs and 799 runs batted in from his age-33 season onwards. Simply put, Ortiz was a freak of nature, and it's not a small thing at all for Schwarber to be compared to Big Papi in that regard.
But at the end of the day, do the Phillies believe that he'd remain this productive this deep into his career?
