Categories: Phillies Nuggets with Tim Kelly

Kyle Schwarber takes accountability for key miscue, but Phillies need much better play in left field

Kyle Schwarber has struggled in left field this season. (Don Otto/Phillies Nation)

Kyle Schwarber was standing in the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse Wednesday waiting to speak to the media before the entirety of the press had even made their way over from the media room after manager Rob Thomson’s postgame press conference.

It hasn’t been a fun year for Schwarber in left field, but he may have hit rock bottom in the top of the 10th inning Thursday afternoon when he failed to catch a routine line drive off the bat of Austin Riley:

It was scored a hit, but that’s clearly part of an effort being made by Major League Baseball to juice offensive numbers so they can present all the rule changes in the sport as overwhelmingly successful. That’s a topic for another time, though.

Common sense tells you it was an error. And after the game, so did Schwarber, who felt like he let down reliever Yunior Marte. After Schwarber botched what should have been the inning-ending play, Marte gave up a no-doubt-about-it two-run home run, extending the Braves lead to 5-0.

“It’s very frustrating. It’s a play that I should make — plain and simple,” Schwarber said candidly. “I don’t really know how or why [I didn’t], but I gotta catch it, plain and simple. That’s not on Marte, it’s not on anyone else, the game is on me.

“I gotta catch that ball,” Schwarber continued. “It’s obviously frustrating. I feel like if I catch it, we extend the game or we win it in the 10th. So yeah, I’m frustrated.”

This was hardly the first missplay Schwarber has had in left field this season. He struggled defensively last weekend in Oakland. Earlier in Thursday’s game, Brandon Marsh failed in a valiant effort to catch a ball in the left-center field gap that almost certainly should have been Schwarber’s.

It’s not that Schwarber has ever been a Gold Glove-caliber left fielder. He doesn’t have a strong arm and won’t get to some balls that speedier left fielders would. The Phillies knew that when they signed him to a four-year/$79 million deal in free agency. They reached the World Series a year ago, despite Schwarber posting -14 defensive runs saved and -14 outs above average.

Still, there was a feeling a year ago that if Schwarber got to a ball, he was going to catch it. It’s impossible to have that confidence right now when watching Schwarber play in left field. And while his defensive metrics were among the worst in baseball last season, he entered play Thursday already with -16 defensive runs saved and -10 outs above average, both dead-last among all qualified defenders.

Schwarber is 30, not 35, his defensive ability shouldn’t be declining this rapidly naturally. That’s led to speculation that he is dealing with a lower-body injury. While he didn’t say that he’s 100% right now, he downplayed the idea that he’s playing through any sort of injury that’s limiting his ability defensively.

“Physically, I’ve felt alright,” Schwarber said. “It’s baseball, there’s gonna be times you feel good and times you don’t feel good, and you figure out a way to get it done.”

So left knee that Schwarber had operated on in 2016 after tearing both his ACL and LCL isn’t catching up with him right now?

“No, I feel like, like I said, there’s gonna be ups and downs physically throughout the season,” Schwarber said. “And I feel like it’s just part of the game. Like I said, I’ll do my thing to make sure when I do step out there I’m gonna be ready to play, and go out there and give it what I got.”

For his part, Thomson acknowledged after the game that Schwarber has had some “misplays” this season, but said he doesn’t plan to take his bat out of the lineup. To his credit, Schwarber entered the day with an OPS close to 1.000 in the month of June. As advertised, he’s heated up offensively in his favorite month, with seven home runs and 14 RBIs.

When you’re a team struggling to hit home runs, taking Schwarber out late in a game would seem to be counterproductive. But at the same time, you can’t be giving away runs defensively when your lineup is underwhelming collectively. Schwarber is well aware of how important it is that he make routine defensive plays.

“I think there’s just been some plays I haven’t made,” Schwarber said. “And I feel like I’ve made those plays in the past, and I gotta be able to make them. Trust me, I’m gonna keep working on it. It ain’t gonna keep me from working on it. It’s not just offense to the game, there’s a lot of different facets to the game. So yeah, I’m gonna keep working on it.”

The Boston Red Sox did experiment with Schwarber at first base briefly in 2021, but it went poorly enough that such a move — be it in 2023 or in the future — doesn’t appear to be on the table.

For all parties involved, the best solution would be for Schwarber to be able to DH, at least on a part-time basis. Whenever Bryce Harper is able to return to the field — whether it’s as a first baseman, right fielder or some combination — that will become an option. But at least until the All-Star Break, Harper is entrenched at DH as he continues to build his arm up after undergoing Tommy John surgery last November.

Quite simply, that means the Phillies need much better play from Schwarber in left field. And he’s confident that’s coming.

“I’ve done it before. So trust me, when you make a play and you feel like you lose the game, it doesn’t make you feel good,” Schwarber said. “Like I’ve always said, there’s experiences, and I’ve had experiences before messing up some plays in left field. Like I said, I’m gonna work on it and be better for it.”