Phillies Need Kyle Schwarber To Improve in Key Statistics

The Philadelphia Phillies have looked like a different team since Don Mattingly took over as interim manager for Rob Thomson after 28 games.

No one was blaming Thomson for the team’s slow start, but a shake-up has seemingly helped wake the team up and get back on track. So has not having to play 13 consecutive games against the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, the two best teams in the National League.

One of the players who has helped the turnaround over the last two weeks is Kyle Schwarber. The star designated hitter is in the midst of an impressive power surge, achieving a feat better than Babe Ruth, producing in a doubleheader at the level of Lou Gehrig and hitting home runs at the same rate as Aaron Judge.

His recent turnaround has been great to see, but there is still another level for which he can take his game. The Phillies need Schwarber to improve his performance against fastballs, which has been down compared to 2025.

Kyle Schwarber not finding as much success against fastballs

As shared by Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic (subscription required), the left-handed slugger has a slugging percentage of .632 against fastballs in the zone. That certainly sounds like a strong number, but it is nearly 80 points lower than the .714 that he produced against the same offering last year.

Contributing to Schwarber’s slugging percentage being down when facing fastballs is his inability to hit pitches up in the zone. Opposing pitchers put him away with heat up in the zone at a 20% clip in 2025; that number is up to 24.3% thus far in 2026.

Those struggles have certainly contributed to Schwarber falling short of other goals he had for the season. He wanted to increase his batting average from last year, which was .240, while also cutting down on his strikeout rate, which was 27.2%.

Through 41 games, his batting average has dipped to .227, and his strikeout rate has spiked to 32.1%, per Baseball Reference.

The issues handling fastballs thus far this year are certainly contributing to him not achieving the goals he has laid out. However, he could be turning a corner in that regard with his recent performance.

Schwarber has hit a home run in four consecutive games, going deep a total of five times. Four of those long balls have come on fastballs, albeit ones near the heart of the zone. Is this a sign of things changing after a slow start?

Philadelphia certainly hopes so. For the team to climb out of this early hole and reach its full potential, they need their star slugger to perform up to his capabilities.

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