ORLANDO, Fla. — The Winter Meetings have a habit of saving their best plot twists for the moment when everyone thinks the room has gone quiet. And on Tuesday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan delivered one: the Phillies and Kyle Schwarber are on the verge of a five-year, $150 million agreement, a deal that would bring the National League’s home run champion right back to the middle of the order he helped define.
BREAKING: Slugger Kyle Schwarber and the Philadelphia Phillies are finalizing a five-year, $150 million contract, sources tell ESPN. The NL MVP runner-up, one of the best home run hitters and clubhouse leaders in baseball, is returning to Philadelphia.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 9, 2025
This wasn’t supposed to be simple. One minute it looked like the Mets were in the chases. The next, the Red Sox were poking around. The Orioles stayed curious. Cincinnati — the hometown fantasy — hovered in the background. Even the Pirates threw in a surprise early offer. For a designated hitter in his 30s, this was not a free-agent market. It was a touring circus.
Yet the longer the chase went on, the more it felt like the ending everyone suspected was waiting in plain sight. Philadelphia believed in Schwarber once before. It believed in the player, the heartbeat, and the gravitational pull he exerts on a clubhouse. And when the bidding got real, the Phillies moved with the urgency of a team that had no intention of letting that walk away.
If you’re looking for the reason half the league came calling, start with the stat line that has become Schwarber’s signature.
Since arriving in 2022 on a four-year, $79 million deal, he has been a model of moonshot consistency — at least 38 home runs every season, no drop-off, no fade, no mystery surrounding what you’re buying.
This year, he didn’t just hit them. He didn’t just lead the league. He never sat down — playing all 162 games for the first time in his career. He also finished with more than 100 walks, joining a tiny group of hitters who managed to overpower pitchers while outthinking them at the same time.
But Schwarber’s value isn’t just in the exit velocity, the barrels, or the scoreboard fireworks. Inside that clubhouse, he is something rarer: an anchor. A tone-setter. The unofficial spokesman for how a long season is supposed to sound and feel. For teams weighing the risk of paying a DH through his mid-30s, that mattered almost as much as the home runs.
That intangible strength — along with the production — allowed Schwarber to chase and nearly secure double the guarantee of his last contract. Designated hitters in their 30s almost never land multi-year deals anymore, let alone one that pays $30 million per season. But Schwarber has spent the last four years refusing to fit any template the sport tried to place him in.
The Pirates are widely believed to have opened the bidding. The Mets, Red Sox, and Orioles kept their toes in the water. And yet, as the dust settled, it was Philadelphia — the franchise that watched him become a home run champion, a postseason tone-setter, and a clubhouse north star — that made the push that counted.
If the last details fall into place, the Phillies won’t just retain a slugger.
They’ll keep the engine that makes their lineup feel like Philadelphia.
Yet the longer the chase went on, the more it felt like the ending everyone suspected was waiting in plain sight. Philadelphia believed in Schwarber once before. It believed in the player, the heartbeat, and the gravitational pull he exerts on a clubhouse. And when the bidding got real, the Phillies moved with the urgency of a team that had no intention of letting that walk away.
If you’re looking for the reason half the league came calling, start with the stat line that has become Schwarber’s signature.
Since arriving in 2022 on a four-year, $79 million deal, he has been a model of moonshot consistency — at least 38 home runs every season, no drop-off, no fade, no mystery surrounding what you’re buying.
This year, he didn’t just hit them. He didn’t just lead the league. He never sat down — playing all 162 games for the first time in his career. He also finished with more than 100 walks, joining a tiny group of hitters who managed to overpower pitchers while outthinking them at the same time.
But Schwarber’s value isn’t just in the exit velocity, the barrels, or the scoreboard fireworks. Inside that clubhouse, he is something rarer: an anchor. A tone-setter. The unofficial spokesman for how a long season is supposed to sound and feel. For teams weighing the risk of paying a DH through his mid-30s, that mattered almost as much as the home runs.
That intangible strength — along with the production — allowed Schwarber to chase and nearly secure double the guarantee of his last contract. Designated hitters in their 30s almost never land multi-year deals anymore, let alone one that pays $30 million per season. But Schwarber has spent the last four years refusing to fit any template the sport tried to place him in.
The Pirates are widely believed to have opened the bidding. The Mets, Red Sox, and Orioles kept their toes in the water. And yet, as the dust settled, it was Philadelphia — the franchise that watched him become a home run champion, a postseason tone-setter, and a clubhouse north star — that made the push that counted.
If the last details fall into place, the Phillies won’t just retain a slugger.
They’ll keep the engine that makes their lineup feel like Philadelphia.
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