John Middleton on Kyle Schwarber: 'We love him, we want to keep him'

Phillies managing partner John Middleton didn't mince words when asked Friday about Kyle Schwarber's future with the team.  

Ty Daubert of Phillies Nation hadn't even finished asking whether Schwarber winning All-Star Game MVP courtesy of his home run swingoff performance would add extra motivation to re-sign him before Middleton answered. 

"No," Middleton said bluntly. "We need no motivation whatsoever when it comes to Kyle Schwarber. He's great. We thought he was great when we signed him years ago. We've thought he was great consistently during the years. 

"There's nothing Kyle does that surprises us, no matter how great he is," Middleton continued. "We expect that from Kyle. And he's been a great person in the dugout. He's a great person in the clubhouse. We love him, we want to keep him — we don't need any motivation whatsoever." 

It's not an earth-shattering quote from Middleton considering president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has said something similar repeatedly, but still a noteworthy statement to have on the record from the most powerful person in the organization. 

Schwarber is 32 years old, but just seems to continue getting better. He's coming off of his third career All-Star Game appearance, and will enter the second half with 30 home runs, 69 RBIs and a .923 OPS. 

Teams tend to be hesitant to make long-term commitments to DHs — which Schwarber almost exclusively is at this point, despite occasional games in left field — but this might be a special case. The Phillies have one of the few blue chip DHs, and as Middleton alluded to, he's one of the leaders in the clubhouse. 

It will likely take a very lucrative four or five-year commitment to retain Schwarber, but it's hard to see another path forward if the Phillies don't want to take a major step backwards in 2026. And over the last 25 years, the Phillies have almost always re-signed their players when they've wanted to. 

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