Phillies Slugger Kyle Schwarber: A Fan Favorite in MLB Clubhouses and Among Three Major Fanbases

The most beloved man in baseball? Why Kyle Schwarber has so many fans in the stands and in MLB clubhouses

Schwarber, the Phillies slugger and MLB home run leader, is adored by three of baseball's biggest fanbases and many of the game's biggest stars

By Julian McWilliams

May 15, 2026 at 12:14 pm ET • 6 min read

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BOSTON --  Kyle Schwarber remembered walking into the Red Sox clubhouse in 2021, wondering how he'd be received.

Boston acquired Schwarber at the trade deadline while he was on the injured list with a strained hamstring, dealing for one of the hottest hitters in baseball at the time despite knowing he could not immediately help.

Schwarber mashed 25 home runs in 72 games with a Nationals team drifting toward the bottom of the standings five years ago. But upon arriving in Boston, the slugger admitted something else consumed him.

"It felt like the first day of school again," Schwarber said. "It's going to be weird when you're trading for a hurt guy. What are they going to think about me when I walk in?"

The question was fair.

At the time, Boston sat atop the American League East. The clubhouse still featured established stars, including Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez .

Then Schwarber saw Kevin Plawecki . The two barely knew each other beyond overlapping Big Ten roots. Plawecki played at Purdue. Schwarber starred at Indiana. They remembered competing against one another years earlier.

After the trade, then-Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long -- who helped revitalize Schwarber's career in Washington and has been Schwarber's hitting coach with the Phillies since 2022 -- offered simple advice.

"Go introduce yourself to Plawecki."

Schwarber listened. Plawecki, despite serving as Boston's backup catcher, was among the most respected and well-liked players in the clubhouse.

But Schwarber quickly became the most popular guy in school. He helped push Boston to within two wins of a World Series appearance. The moonshots played. So did the edge. Red Sox fans saw a slugger with a rugged beard and October in his bloodstream. Inside the clubhouse, Schwarber's impact stretched deeper than tape-measure home runs and postseason theatrics.

"I can't say enough good things about Kyle," said Plawecki, now serving as the  Padres ' catching coach. "He's a special individual. You have to be around him to know it."

He was loved by Cubs fans in Chicago long before the homers arrived consistently, when injuries still defined much of his career. In Boston, Schwarber received cheers from the Fenway faithful this week despite not having played there in nearly five years. He homered in his first Phillies at-bat in 2022 and has not stopped endearing himself to the Philadelphia fanbase since.

Schwarber is easily one of the most beloved figures in baseball -- in the stands and in clubhouses.

This really isn't about leadership in the cliché baseball sense. The word gets thrown around too loosely. Loudest voice in the room. Alpha energy. Manufactured accountability. That wasn't Schwarber.

This was about something harder to find.

A stabilizer. A connector. The rare star capable of making everyone else breathe a little easier around him.

"He's been through it, man," said teammate Bryce Harper . "He's been through the wringer. He was [non-tendered]. He went through ups and downs. First-round pick, to playing in the minors, raking in the minors, going to the big leagues, playing great in the postseason, gets non-tendered and then comes back, and he's an absolute machine."

You might've forgotten that part, didn't you? The non-tender.

After a down 2020 season (.188/.308/.393 slash line in 59 games during the COVID-shortened season), Jed Hoyer, the Cubs ' president of baseball operations, decided to wipe his hands clean of Schwarber, the slugger the organization drafted and watched help end a 108-year championship drought.

But that became part of the story. Part of the teammate. The stabilizer.

The failures. The demotion. The uncertainty. The feeling of baseball telling you maybe you weren't who you thought you were.

All of it hardened Schwarber. There was no deathly blow.

It instead became a piece of the makeup that teammates now gravitated toward.

"You don't always have to be the one who's given direction," Schwarber said. "Sometimes, an ear to just sit there and listen to someone is just as, or even more, important."

That's why Schwarber can reach almost every corner of a clubhouse.

Plawecki was a player fighting to carve out years in the big leagues. Schwarber understood that life.

Phillies teammate Justin Crawford is a rookie trying to find his footing inside a clubhouse packed with stars. Schwarber understood that, too, from his younger years with the Cubs.

"Just in my short time being here, he's already helped me so much, just the day-to-day kind of aspect of it, the roller coaster of the season, the ups and downs," Crawford said.

Then there was Harper, a likely future Hall of Famer and one of the faces of baseball. Even he related

"I think Kyle has a special ability to see the ball and hit the ball," Harper said. "Just ever since he's been in Philly, the dynamic he's brought to our team has been just incredible and invaluable, man. One of the better guys I've ever played with. Just human-being wise."

With Schwarber, the human and the hitter are difficult to separate.

Harper couldn't go more than a few sentences without circling back to the player because Schwarber remained one of the most dangerous hitters in the sport.

He crushed two homers during a three-game series at Fenway Park this week, punctuating a series win over the Red Sox with a go-ahead two-run shot in the eighth inning of a scoreless game Thursday night. He enters Friday with 18 homers, the most in the majors.

> MAMA THERE GOES THAT MAN! pic.twitter.com/ZJrc7hVXKe — Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 15, 2026

Schwarber now has 205 home runs in five seasons with Philadelphia, already the sixth-most in Major League Baseball history through a player's first five years with a franchise. Babe Ruth is the record-holder in that category with 235 in his first five Yankee seasons. Schwarber has a chance to catch him.

Sultan of Swat vs. Schwarber

Most home runs by an MLB player in his first five seasons with a team

Player Home Runs Team (Years)

1. Babe Ruth

236

Yankees (1920-1924)

2. Mark McGwire

220

Cardinals (1997-2001)

3. Ralph Kiner

215

Pirates (1946-1950)

T4. David Ortiz

208

Red Sox (2003-2007)

T4. Alex Rodriguez

208

Yankees (2004-2008)

6. Kyle Schwarber 205 (and counting) Phillies (2022-2026)

But Schwarber isn't trying to sell out for homers. He swears.

In fact, the three-true-outcomes nature of his game -- homers, strikeouts and walks -- still bothers him. Schwarber never wanted to be that type of hitter, even if that profile now has him tracking toward Hall of Fame conversations.

"I remember the first time I got to professional baseball and in 2015 I hit .246," said Schwarber. "And I'm like 'Damn, I hit .300 my whole life.' I love hits just as much as anyone else. It's not like I'm trying to go up there and sell out for homers."

Schwarber kept going.

"My 2023 was such a weird f---ing year. I look up, and I see a .190 [batting average] or whatever it was, and it drives me insane because I'm a baseball player."

The real players, however, have their way of finding a lane and dominating it.

Schwarber figured that aspect out. Both in the box and among his teammates.

Even in turmoil, a managerial change, with the team going from Rob Thomson to Don Mattingly after a slow start, Schwarber pressed on.

"We'll be good," he said inside the visitors' clubhouse.

It was almost a whisper. But a confident one. A calming one capable of cutting through chaos.

The Phillies, 12-4 under Mattingly and 21-23 overall, have won five straight series.

They'll be good. Schwarber said so.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/most-beloved-man-in-baseball-kyle-schwarber/)._