Kyle Schwarber Named to NL All-Star Team
Former Indiana Hoosier slugger and current Philadelphia Phillies' left fielder Kyle Schwarber will play in the 2022 MLB All-Star game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. on Tuesday, July 19.
Despite leading the National League with 28 home runs, Schwarber made the team as a reserve. He missed out on a starting spot behind Atlanta's Ronald Acuña Jr., Los Angeles' Mookie Betts and San Francisco's Joc Pederson. Fellow Philadelphia power hitter Bryce Harper was named the starting designated hitter for the National League, but he will be replaced by Atlanta's William Contreras due to injury.
Schwarber hit a whopping 12 home runs in the month of June, and he already has five long balls in July thanks to back-to-back two-home run games on July 5 and 6. He is batting .222 this season with a .336 on-base percentage and a .531 slugging percentage. Schwarber also leads the National League with 61 runs scored.
The Phillies' left fielder has been specifically hot over the last two seasons since leaving the Chicago Cubs. Before the 2021 season, Schwarber signed with the Washington Nationals, where he hit 25 home runs in across 72 games. With the Nationals in rebuilding mode, they traded Schwarber to Boston, where he batted .291 with seven home runs in 41 games.
Schwarber continued this impressive stretch into the 2022 season after signing a four-year, $79 million contract with the Phillies. He has 60 home runs and 128 RBI in 197 games since the start of the 2021 season, en route to two consecutive All-Star game appearances.
Despite career-high home run numbers, Schwarber is also pacing record-breaking strikeout totals. In 84 games this season, he has struck out 106 times. His over-200 strikeout pace in 2022 would fly past his career-high mark in 2019 of 156. Still, his league-high home run numbers and .867 OPS – tied for 13th in the NL – make him one of the top power hitters in baseball.
Schwarber began his MLB career as the 4th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs. He rose quickly through the minor leagues, debuting in the big leagues in 2015 when he played 69 games. Schwarber hit 16 home runs as a rookie, but his career took a pause just two games into the 2016 season when he tore his ACL in an outfield collision.
The Cubs assumed Schwarber would miss the rest of the season, but he miraculously returned for game one of the 2016 World Series. And without Schwarber, it's possible the Cubs would still be searching for their first World Series ring in over 100 years. After not playing in an MLB game for over six months, Schwarber posted a .412 batting average and a .917 OPS to propel the Cubs to a World Series victory.
Schwarber would go on to spend the next four years of his career in Chicago, hitting 105 home runs in 480 games during that span. But after a .188 batting average in 59 games during a 2020 season shortened by COVID-19, the Cubs' front office decided that Schwarber wasn't worth keeping for the long haul.
Before his professional career, Schwarber blasted 18 home runs with a .366 batting average at Indiana University in 2013, leading the Hoosiers to their most recent College World Series appearance. As a junior in 2014, Schwarber was a Baseball America first-team All-American, as well as a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award for his work as a catcher.
He posted a career 1.044 OPS in three seasons at Indiana before becoming the fourth overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in the 2014 MLB Draft, which is the highest pick in Indiana baseball history. Schwarber ranks ranks fifth in slugging percentage (.607), sixth in home runs (40), eighth in hits (238) and tied for eighth in triples (12) and runs (182).
Schwarber was mic'd up during the Phillies game on July 4, and had some high praise for his alma mater.
“Going to Indiana was the best thing that ever happened to me," Schwarber said.
Related stories on Indiana baseball:
- IU DAY ON BIG TEN NETWORK: The Big Ten Network is dedicating all of Tuesday's programming to classic Indiana University athletics games and documentaries during its annual IU Day. Fans can watch the 1976 men's basketball national championship game, a documentary on George Taliaferro and much more. CLICK HERE
- SCHWARBER, EFFROSS HAVING BIG SEASONS IN MLB: Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and Scott Effross of the Chicago Cubs are the two former Indiana Hoosiers in the MLB right now, and the 2013 College World Series teammates have carved out important roles on their respective teams. CLICK HERE
- TRIO OF FRESHMEN NAMED ALL-AMERICANS: Freshman sluggers Josh Pyne, Carter Mathison and Brock Tibbitts earned freshman All-American accolades from College Baseball Newspaper, setting an Indiana baseball program record. Indiana joined Oregon State, Tennessee and UCLA as one of four programs with three or more athletes to make the list. CLICK HERE