Phillies rumors: Jeff Passan makes ‘outlier’ $100 million contract prediction for star slugger

Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber is off to a scorching start to 2025, and as he continues to hit home runs, his potential value in free agency is going up.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan took a look at the players with nine-figure potential in a column published Tuesday, and Schwarber was an unlikely name on his list.

“A designated hitter who’s going to be 33 next Opening Day getting a nine-figure deal? Schwarber is an outlier in so many other respects, so why not here, too?” Passan wrote. “He is terminally productive. He is an exceptional clubhouse leader. Nobody would blink at giving him $25 million a year, and a four-year ask — particularly in a class weak on high-end bats — is eminently reasonable.”

To Passan’s point, Schwarber is a known quantity. Over his last three-plus seasons with the Phillies, he has hit for an .817 OPS or better each year and never ended the season with fewer than 38 home runs. He’s a high strikeout guy but also walks a ton — and he’s cut down on his strikeout percentage so far in 2025 (21.9%, down from a career average of 28.3%).  Schwarber is also riding a 40-game on-base streak dating back to last season.

Schwarber is on the last year of a four-year, $79 million contract he signed with the Phillies in 2022, giving him about $20 million a year. It’s not much of a stretch for a team to want to bump that up to $25 million over four years, as Passan suggested. Schwarber may be thinking exactly that, as he reportedly turned down a contract extension in the offseason.

Also working in his favor is that the Phillies are leaning on him heavily. As SI’s Troy Brock pointed out, 21.7% of the home runs that Philadelphia has hit since 2022 have come off of Schwarber’s bat.

So far in 2025, Schwarber has 11 homers and no other Phillies player has more than six. He’s been a consistent bright spot as Bryce Harper has gone through his struggles and Alec Bohm has yet to start hitting. Assuming Schwarber stays healthy, there’s no reason the Phillies wouldn’t want him back — and they should be willing to pay big money for him.