Philadelphia Phillies' Offense Could Explode With Slugger's New Approach
The Philadelphia Phillies have had one of the best offenses in baseball the past two seasons, but there's a chance they could perform even better based on the changes one of their sluggers made.
Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber is known for his majestic home runs.
He launched 46 homers in 2022 and 47 more last season, mostly from the leadoff spot. He already has six home runs for the Phillies this year, who are off to a 15-9 start.
They pay Schwarber to produce extra-base hits and drive in runs.
Thus far in 2024, he has also shown an incredible ability with plate discipline. In Sunday's 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox, Schwarber crushed a solo shot, hit a sacrifice fly and walked three times.
His at-bats were impressive.
"There's going to be times that the situation calls for you to take a pitch," Schwarber told Matt Gelb of The Athletic. "But, if it doesn't, I'm trying to be aggressive to the zone. Last year was a prime example of, that guy, I probably wouldn't have swung at that pitch."
Last season, the slugger walked 126 times but struck out a Major League-high 215 times. Even Schwarber will admit that's too many strikeouts. But Philadelphia has won a lot of games with him in the unorthodox role of the leadoff hitter.
He will strike out. A lot. That's just the reality of the situation.
Schwarber has been pleased with his new plate approach this season, though.
"That's the thing," he told Gelb. "I would rather take this version right now than the last couple of years. Right? If I keep doing what I'm doing, there will be more positive that comes out it than what happened last year. You can keep digging yourself into a hole. So I'm happy with where I'm at. There's still some tweaks. But if we keep going this way, I feel like there can be way more positives."
Schwarber's plate approach will especially pay dividends in the postseason, and that's where the Phillies want to be again with another shot to win an elusive World Series title.
