Phillies Star Slugger Has Been Epitome of Three True Outcomes Player in 2025

The Philadelphia Phillies have been dominant so far in 2025, and one of their key pieces has been at the forefront of that success due to his hitting abilities.

Mar 31, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) gives the thumbs up after hitting a two-run home run during the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies are on a roll to kick off the 2025 season, and with that, they have had some exceptional performances from many of their key players. Their starting lineup has been hitting well both for power and for contact, and they have been drawing walks at a solid rate. Their biggest issue has been their strikeout-to-walk ratio, with 68 to 43 respectively, which is not sustainable long-term.

The most intriguing part of their offense has likely been designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who has continued to go further down the rabbit hole of being a three true outcomes player in recent years. Through nine games, he leads the team in home runs with four, is tied for second on the team in walks with five, and is tied for the most strikeouts on the team with nine.

Nearly half of his hits have been home runs at four of nine, and he only has one additional extra base hit on the year when not counting home runs, a double. Both 2023 and 2024 were similar results as well, with high home run and RBI totals, but also high strikeout and walk numbers to accompany it.

Moving to designated hitter has at least improved his strikeout rate, which has helped him become a more effective player, and after an abysmal .197 batting average in 2023, things drastically improved up to .248 in 2024, and .265 so far in 2025. His offense has always been predicated on his ability to draw walks and make hard contact, which can be seen when taking a look at his advanced metrics.

In 2025, according to Baseball Savant, he is 99th percentile in average exit velocity and 98th percentile in hard-hit percentage. He is also 69th percentile in walk percentage and 23rd percentile in whiff percentage. This just reinforces the narrative that he is making exceptionally strong contact when he does get a hold of the ball but is often missing on pitches which drags down the consistency of his hits.

One of the other notable struggles he has is sprint speed, as when the ball does not get out of the park it is essentially a guaranteed single pending unforseen circumstances. He currently sits 1st percentile in baserunning run value and 16th percentile in sprint speed.

One of the only players who has had a somewhat similar hitting profile in recent memory is Jorge Soler, but his walk numbers were nowhere near as impressive as Schwarber's. While the strikeouts do not help anything, his ability to generate runs from nothing and get on base is a positive for the team no matter what.