For only the second time this season, Kyle Schwarber was penciled in the lineup as the team’s left fielder for the day on Saturday.
As starter Zack Wheeler and catcher Rafael Marchan took the field in the top of the first, Schwarber came jogging out of the dugout alone. He stopped, waved his arms and implored the rest of his teammates to join him. He eventually gave up and continued on to left field. His teammates left the dugout when Schwarber made it to the back of the infield dirt near shortstop. The fans in left field greeted Schwarber for the first time since 2023. It was the equivalent of the NHL rookie lap in warmups for the 10-year major league veteran.
It was an easy day for Schwarber at his old position. He backed up shortstop Trea Turner on a popup in shallow left field for the first out of the game and caught a fly ball for the first out of the eighth and last out of the ninth. Wheeler threw six 1-2-3 innings on his way to his ninth win of the season. Only seven balls made it to an outfielder’s glove off the bat of Arizona hitters.
The Phillies have had the luxury of protecting Schwarber’s health by keeping him at DH. He has excelled in the role. After going 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles on Saturday, Schwarber’s OPS is up to .852 with a .385 on-base percentage and .258 batting average. Both the OBP and BA are in line with where he was during the best season of his career in 2021.
“It’s a really hard thing to do,” Bryce Harper, who spent a year-and-a-half as a full-time DH and won an NLCS MVP in the process, said. “We found somebody that can actually do it on our team.”
Schwarber started 103 games for the Phillies in left field in what was an imperfect arrangement. Though he refused to make excuses or speak about it, Schwarber dealt with nagging knee issues that impacted his ability to play left field. He ranked last among all fielders in outs above average with -19 in 2023.
The knee is much better this year and the proof is in his ability to go from first to third. He advanced two bases on a soft single from Trea Turner in the first inning on a ball that he would have had to hold up at second for last year. Schwarber later scored on an RBI single from Harper. Turner also went first to third on the Harper RBI and later came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Nick Castellanos.
The Phillies’ best defensive alignment in the outfield is Brandon Marsh in left, Cristian Pache in center with Johan Rojas in Triple A, Castellanos in right and Schwarber at DH. But as the 50-win Phillies get deeper into the dog days of summer, Rob Thomson could utilize the DH spot more often as a way to get certain regulars some rest without having their bat out of the lineup. Alec Bohm received a break from third base on Saturday. Castellanos, who has started every game for the Phillies, could be next in line for a breather.
“Maybe a little bit more,” Thomson said when asked about rotating the DH spot. “It just depends on the other guys and how they’re holding up. I thought Bohmer needed a day off his feet today. You know, we’re going through a lot of aches and pains just like everybody in baseball right now. We gotta make sure we keep these guys healthy.”
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