Phillies Star Kyle Schwarber Making Legitimate Case For MVP in Career Campaign

The Philadelphia Phillies are very much in the conversation in what is an extremely competitive National League with a number of teams that can make a real case as the favorite come October.

This is where this team expected to be though after playoff runs in each of the last three years. The Phillies being a World Series contender is not a major surprise, in fact it would have been a disappointment if it was anything to the contrary.

What was not expected though, and has been arguably the most pleasant surprise of a special season for the Phillies, has been the dominance of designated hitter Kyle Schwarber.

Not that the slugger wasn't already among the fan favorites due to his propensity to blast long balls at an insane rate, but this year he has taken things to another level.

Schwarber is having the best season of his career and has gone beyond being considered a masher who's a great tool to have in the lineup. The 32-year-old is putting together the kind of campaign which should warrant him consideration for the league's most prestigious individual honor: an MVP award.

With a slash line of .258/.382/.593, a National League leading 40 home runs and MLB leading 94 RBI, Schwarber is having a season which could net him legitimate hardware. A bWAR of 4.0 through 112 games would already be a career high, and he will only have the chance to build on that down the stretch.

Granted, Schwarber is going to have to fend off the likes of Shohei Ohtani who looks bound for his third consecutive MVP and second straight NL MVP.

However, with a grand slam on Monday night -- his second home run in the dominating win over the Baltimore Orioles -- it feels like a narrative is starting to form in favor of Philadelphia's long ball savant.

For the first time in his long and storied career, Schwarber is being considered more than just a feast or famine home run hitter.

This is a player who cannot be replaced, and one who continues to have a flare for the most dramatic moments of games.

Unseating Ohtani for the crown is not going to be easy, but for the first time in a very long time, it seems like someone has a real chance at doing just that.

If Schwarber can continue to be the kind of hitter he's been all year down the stretch of this season, not only will the Phillies be a force to be reckoned with come October, they also just might have their second MVP winner of the decade.