An All-Star Slugger and a ‘Mic Man’: Kyle Schwarber Has a Revered Presence

If you wish to discover the guts and soul of a Main League Baseball workforce, begin with the “mic man” on the entrance of the bus. 

When a workforce lands in a brand new metropolis, it’s typically the duty of 1 devoted participant to play emcee on the trip to the resort. The objective is to maintain issues gentle and unfastened over the course of an extended season, and there aren’t any strict pointers or subjects for the person with the microphone. 

“It may be about something – the place we’re going, who we’re taking part in, what we did, why we stink, somebody tousled in a humorous manner,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber defined. 

The one actual rule? 

“You must attempt to entertain the group,” stated Dodgers mic man Miguel Rojas. “You’re not a very good mic man for those who’re simply speaking along with your ego and saying stuff about your self.” 

It’s a position match for a workforce chief. You want some really feel and an understanding of the temperature within the room. You must be humorous, however not a clown. You must be revered, however you’ll be able to’t take your self too significantly. You should be snug ribbing teammates — and your self. Self-deprecation and humor are welcomed, even perhaps required, particularly for a workforce in a funk. 

Generally, the manufacturing can go off the rails. However it takes a sure character and fearlessness to face there within the first place. 

Together with being an All-Star slugger, Kyle Schwarber can also be the ‘mic man’ for the Phillies. (Photograph by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Photos)

“Half of it’s spitting out crap,” Schwarber stated. “Half of it’s not even entertaining. You’re attempting to think about stuff to make individuals chuckle and nothing’s actually occurring. Like, yeah, we had an ideal collection however nothing actually humorous occurred. So then I simply bury myself more often than not.

“That’s the way it goes. I’m not excellent at it. There’s a number of uncommon occasions that I’ll have the entire bus laughing, which is enjoyable. However I’m positive half the time everybody’s sick and bored with listening to my s—.”

They don’t seem to be. 

Actually, Schwarber is beloved within the clubhouse for his affable, approachable nature and elegance of management, which makes the designated hitter the right match to even be the designated mic man. 

“He’s a man that’s actually good at making enjoyable of himself, which makes it slightly simpler to speak to him,” stated Phillies rookie Otto Kemp. “He’s a perfectionist, however no ego. He form of places that apart and is a man you’ll be able to go as much as at any level and ask about no matter. That’s particular with a man that’s been within the league so long as he has.” 

‘He simply brings us all collectively’

On the sector, Schwarber’s worth is measurable and vital: He led the Nationwide League with 56 house runs and all of MLB with 132 RBI in a profession yr. 

Off the sector, it’s immeasurable but perhaps simply as vital, from the bus to the batting cage, from his work in the neighborhood with Schwarber’s Neighborhood Heroes to his affect within the clubhouse with the workforce’s youthful gamers. 

Take Kemp, as an illustration, an undrafted Division II prospect out of Level Loma Nazarene College who made his big-league debut on June 7. 

He didn’t know many gamers on the roster earlier than the Phillies referred to as him up, and he wished to make a very good first impression. He didn’t need to step on any toes. So, in his first couple weeks up, he tried to get his work executed early earlier than the remainder of his teammates. 

Nicely, most of them.

Schwarber, as Kemp would come to seek out out, “lives within the cage.” That offered him time to select Schwarber’s mind. 

“Simply having that point to shoot the s— with him and bounce concepts backwards and forwards and form of get to know him slightly extra, what makes him who he’s. That was a cool little factor for the primary couple weeks once I was getting used to life up right here,” Kemp stated. “He helped out fairly a bit.”

Kyle Schwarber giving Otto Kemp a celebratory tub earlier this season. (Photograph by Mitchell Leff/Getty Photos)

Weston Wilson, a 2016 Seventeenth-round decide who signed a minor league free-agent cope with the Phillies in 2023 and made his big-league debut later that yr, had the same expertise with Schwarber two years in the past. 

“He simply was a kind of leaders you appeared as much as instantly,” Wilson stated. “Very welcoming, didn’t deal with guys that had no service time otherwise than he handled guys with service time, so I revered that. I simply assume he’s the identical man each time, whether or not he’s doing good or dangerous, all the time encouraging others.”

Making teammates really feel snug, Schwarber believes, is an important trait to a successful tradition. However it might’t be compelled. He’s not sitting in his resort room earlier than a recreation attempting to plan out which participant he’s going to tug apart for a chat. 

“It simply occurs,” Schwarber defined. “With the ability to be approachable and having the ability to have good listening capabilities can also be extra vital than simply having the ability to spew it out. You’ll be able to discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss, and it may not click on. But in addition, if somebody’s bought one thing, you need them to really feel like they’re getting no matter they need to say off their thoughts, no matter it’s. That is likely to be far more useful than you speaking.”

Schwarber possesses a particular capability to impression gamers in any respect completely different factors of their careers — primarily as a result of he can relate, wherever they occur to be.

After a promising debut season with the Cubs at 22 years previous, Schwarber famously tore his ACL and LCL and severely sprained his ankle within the second recreation of his second big-league season. The Cubs introduced that he can be out for the yr. Schwarber tweeted two days after the collision that it was “a take a look at of character.” 

Six months later, towards all odds, he etched his place in Chicago lore when he returned, miraculously, for the World Collection and went 7-for-17 within the Fall Basic to assist finish the Cubs’ 108-year curse. However 4 years later, an unceremonious departure awaited. The Cubs weren’t fascinated with holding onto the previous after they non-tendered Schwarber after a down yr within the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

Now, that have is simply a part of his story, a second that makes him much more relatable to these whose big-league journeys are both simply starting or at a crossroads.

“In case you’re struggling, you’re frightened about being despatched down, I’ve been there,” Schwarber stated. “Really feel such as you may get non-tendered? Been there.

“To expertise it and are available out on the opposite aspect, you simply know there generally is a gentle on the finish of the tunnel. You must hold preventing, hold pushing ahead.” 

Kyle Schwarber quite let his play do the speaking – anticipate when he’s on the mic. (Photograph by Emilee Chinn/Getty Photos)

It’s straightforward to stay upbeat in a season that can finish with MVP votes, as Schwarber’s virtually actually will this yr. It’s not as straightforward while you’re hitting beneath .200 for a season, as Schwarber was two years in the past. 

However again then, Wilson noticed the identical man he sees now. 

“Plenty of it has to do with the kind of particular person you might be away from baseball,” Wilson stated. “He’s all the time main, all the time treating individuals the identical manner.”

Schwarber cringes a bit on the “chief” label, primarily as a result of he’s not doing something past being himself. 

“It’s a praise, don’t get me incorrect,” Schwarber stated. “However I’m not a man who likes to go with myself.”

That’s high quality; his teammates can do it for him. 

“After we go into a brand new metropolis, not all groups exit to dinner with one another,” stated Garrett Stubbs, whose arrival in Philadelphia coincided with Schwarber’s in 2022. “However he appears to be the man that constantly places these dinners collectively — and never simply financially paying for it however truly getting the blokes going out to dinner collectively, hanging out outdoors the baseball area.”

Greater than something, it’s Schwarber’s approachability that units him aside. That capability spans age, race, language, background and tenure. Panama native Edmundo Sosa described his time with the Phillies to me because the “finest 4 years of his life in baseball,” and it began with how he was handled by Schwarber and the established gamers within the locker room when Philadelphia acquired him from St. Louis on the 2022 deadline. 

“He’s an actual chief,” Sosa stated. “I say that as a result of outdoors the sector, inside the sector, he takes care of all people. Younger guys, [veteran] guys, he tries to get all people on the identical web page, staying collectively. He’s humorous generally, however when it’s severe, it’s actually severe.”

Added Kemp: “He simply makes it much less anxious, slightly extra snug.”

It’s attainable that consolation has helped manufacturing. 

What makes the Phillies feared this October is their elite rotation and the bats of Schwarber, Harper and NL batting champ Trea Turner. However they’ve had that earlier than. What set them aside in 2025, serving to them accumulate extra wins than they’ve had in any season since 2011, is the supporting forged. 

Amongst that group is Kemp, who offered a lift for the membership because it handled accidents, logging time at 4 completely different positions. Sosa, in the meantime, performed 5 completely different positions whereas hitting above league common in top-of-the-line seasons of his profession. 

On the deadline, the Phillies’ new additions assimilated swiftly, taking part in a few of their finest baseball upon becoming a member of the membership. Jhoan Duran offers Philadelphia the elite nearer it has lacked in current Octobers. Harrison Bader, in the meantime, had an .824 OPS after the commerce, a tally that trailed solely Schwarber and Bryce Harper for the most effective mark on the workforce. Over the past two  months, he seen the impression Schwarber had on these round him. 

“He simply brings us all collectively,” Bader stated. “He’s the identical man day-after-day. He’s truthfully very informal. He’s bought a whole lot of poise…tremendous constructive. He’s all the time speaking in regards to the subsequent swing, subsequent alternative, getting your thoughts proper. That’s the calm power you want.”

Particularly now, because the Phillies put together to host the Dodgers within the Nationwide League Division Collection, seeking to wipe away the ache of the previous couple of postseasons. 

In 2022, the Phillies gained 87 video games and ended a 10-year playoff drought regardless of ending in third place within the NL East. They made it to the World Collection, the place they misplaced to the Astros. With a core that included Schwarber, Harper, J.T. Realmuto and lots of the similar gamers nonetheless with the membership now, the arrow was pointing up. 

Their October manufacturing, nonetheless, regressed. They gained 90 video games in 2023 and misplaced within the NLCS. They gained 95 video games final yr and exited after 4 video games within the NLDS. 

This yr, in what may very well be the final hurrah for this nucleus — Schwarber, Realmuto and Ranger Suárez are all among the many veteran members of the Phillies core who will probably be free brokers at season’s finish — they gained 96 video games. Schwarber, who began each recreation this season, performed an important position within the success, with an OPS over 1.000 in Phillies wins. 

However he additionally made the trip satisfying within the 66 video games that didn’t go Philadelphia’s manner. 

“You might be struggling, you might be going nice,” Schwarber stated. “So long as you sit up for strolling by means of the door, it’s not going to be as dangerous a day because it may very well be — or it is likely to be a greater day than it might’ve been.” 

‘Thoughts-boggling’ energy

Past the welcoming nature that has made him probably the most revered clubhouse presences within the sport, Schwarber’s worth to the Phillies’ lineup is clear. 

On Sept. 15, the Dodgers determined to make use of reliever Anthony Banda as an opener in entrance of longman Emmet Sheehan, as a manner to make sure they’d get a lefty-lefty matchup early towards the Phillies’ prime sluggers. Banda bought Schwarber down 1-2, watched him foul off a sinker, bought an automated ball on a pitch clock violation, then snapped a 2-2 slider that painted the black on the outer fringe of the plate. Not a foul pitch. 

“It sucked, as a result of I really feel like I did all the pieces proper,” Banda stated.

In hindsight, he wished the slider was slightly extra off the plate and down. 

That is the hazard of going through Schwarber, who hit 23 house runs off left-handed pitchers this yr, probably the most by any left-handed hitter in a single season in MLB historical past. 

He had an OPS over .900 in each the primary and second half. He had an OPS over .900 towards each righties and lefties. He doesn’t chase. He’ll take his walks. However give him one thing his bat can contact, and also you may not see that baseball once more. 

On that pitch from Banda, Schwarber hunched over, a bit out in entrance, but with a one-handed swing someway pulled the surface slider 103.8 mph off the bat. Banda described what occurred subsequent as mind-boggling. 

The Dodgers reliever was fairly positive he popped him up. As an alternative, the ball stored carrying. The consequence, a solo house run that discovered the right-field pavilion to place the Phillies on the board, left Banda incredulous. 

“All people was pondering the identical factor, scratching their head,” Banda recalled. “Like, ‘How?’ Or, ‘wow.’” 

The identical reactions came about a month prior in Philadelphia, when Schwarber turned the twenty first participant ever to document a four-homer recreation. And the month earlier than that in Atlanta in July, when Schwarber went 3-for-3 within the first ever All-Star Recreation house run swing-off to earn MVP honors. His ultimate house run in that competitors got here on one knee. 

“Schwarbs, if he touches it, it’s 110,” stated Dave Roberts. 

That evening, Schwarber helped make Roberts the All-Star Recreation successful supervisor. 

This week, that form of energy manufacturing might finish the season for Roberts’ reigning champions.

Final yr, Schwarber turned the one Phillies participant ever to hit no less than 30 homers in every of his first three seasons with the membership; he’s now the one one to do it in 4 straight. An exorbitant payday is unquestionably forward. However earlier than he turns into probably the most desired bats on the open market, unfinished enterprise stays for Philadelphia’s steadying pressure. 

The Phillies enter October with an opportunity to redeem their current shortcomings. They’re the upper seed in a powerhouse showdown towards the Dodgers that options a few of the sport’s largest names, from Harper to Shohei Ohtani, Turner to Mookie Betts.  

Schwarber, in a yr through which he set profession highs in hits, homers, extra-base hits, RBIs, runs scored and even stolen bases, is after all amongst them. He’ll quickly discover his manner onto MVP ballots, even when the unicorn he’s going through Saturday in Recreation 1 in the end wins the award. 

However that’s not his concern proper now. 

For the tenth time in 11 big-league seasons, he’s postseason certain, with pretty much as good an opportunity as ever to expertise that feeling he had as a champion 9 years in the past in Chicago. It is what makes all these hours within the cage, all these aircraft rides and mic periods, all these jokes at his personal expense value it. 

“That’s what you dream of, that’s what you hope for, that’s why you fall asleep at evening, that’s what drives you each single yr,” Schwarber stated. “In case you do make it, you need to do it once more. In case you don’t get there, it retains you up at evening, like, ‘What extra might I’ve executed?’ That’s why you play the sport.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB author for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand lined the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved again to the West Coast in 2014. Observe him on X at @RowanKavner.

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