CLEARWATER, Fla. – The Phillies have reached a multi-year agreement to sign free agent slugger Kyle Schwarber, according to a baseball source.
Terms of the agreement were not immediately known. The deal is pending a physical exam.
Schwarber, 29, is expected to play left field for the Phillies. The lefty hitter can bat anywhere from leadoff to the middle of the order. He hit .266 with 32 homers, 71 RBIs and a .928 OPS with Washington and Boston last season.
Schwarber helped the Chicago Cubs win a World Series in 2016. He has eclipsed 30 home runs three times in his career.
Schwarber was let go by the Cubs last winter. He signed a one-year contract worth $10 million with the Nationals before the 2021 season and slugged 25 home runs in 72 games before being traded to Boston, where he hit .291 with 10 doubles, seven homers and a .957 OPS in 41 games to help the Red Sox make the playoffs.
While with Washington, Schwarber hit 16 homers, drove in 30 runs and had a 1.122 OPS while winning National League Player of the Month honors in June. For the season, he hit .266 with a .928 OPS, 32 homers and 71 RBIs and he did it in just 113 games as he missed six weeks with a hamstring injury.
In Philadelphia, Schwarber will be reunited with Kevin Long, his former hitting coach in Washington. Long became Phillies hitting coach in October.
Schwarber, an Ohio native who played at Indiana University, was the fourth overall pick in the 2014 draft. The Cubs took him three picks ahead of Aaron Nola. He advanced to the majors quickly and was part of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship team. From 2017 through 2019, he hit just .234 with a strikeout rate of 27.8 percent. But he averaged 31 homers and 71 RBIs over that span.
With Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, the Phillies have some serious thunder in their lineup.
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