That\u2019s the largest contract ever for a designated hitter \u2014 no matter how you calculate this stuff. And it isn\u2019t even close.<\/p>\n
No true DH had ever raked in a deal worth 20 million bucks a year, let alone 30. The old record was held by Astros masher Yordan Alvarez, who got an average annual value of $19.2 million, but he was still three years away from free agency when he signed that deal before the 2023 season. And if you\u2019re wondering about David Ortiz, the most he ever made was $16 million, in his final two seasons (2015 and \u201916).<\/p>\n
Only 14 other active position players currently have contracts averaging at least $30 million a year \u2014 although \u201cactive\u201d seems like a funny word to use to describe Anthony Rendon<\/a>. You know what crazy thing those other 14 guys all have in common? They all wear gloves pretty much every day, with the exception of that Shohei Ohtani guy, who isn\u2019t so much a \u201cposition player\u201d as he is a superhero freak from the mysterious planet Ohtanus.<\/p>\n But now this man, Kyle Joseph Schwarber, has changed the world and changed the value of his profession. If you\u2019re someone who spends too much time staring at the wins above replacement column, that probably makes no sense to you. But judging by what the Phillies just paid him, never has a player\u2019s WAR valuation told us less about his real value in the real world.<\/p>\n If you take a trip down Baseball Reference\u2019s active WAR leaderboard<\/a>, it\u2019ll take you a while to find Schwarber\u2019s name. He\u2019s all the way down at No. 70 on that list, with 19.9 bWAR (in 11 seasons).<\/p>\n So why the heck would any team make the allegedly 70th \u201cbest\u201d player in baseball one of the 17 highest-paid position players in the sport? I think the Phillies are trying to tell us something.<\/p>\n They\u2019re telling us he\u2019s the central character on their entire roster. They\u2019re telling us they don\u2019t see a path to winning without him. They\u2019re telling us he\u2019s the handyman who fuses all their other parts together.<\/p>\n They\u2019re telling us, as he comes off an electrifying 56-homer season, they expect him to zoom up the Phillies\u2019 all-time home run list and possibly into the 500-Homer Club. They\u2019re telling us that in the toughest sports town in America, they can\u2019t find a soul who doesn\u2019t love this man, not just in their dugout but also in the cheesesteak line at Angelo\u2019s.<\/p>\n So why has there never been a contract like this? Possibly because it\u2019s practically impossible to find another player quite like this.<\/p>\n Unique contracts are given out only to unique humans. And come to think of it, that\u2019s a good explanation for why the Phillies let Schwarber take a spin around the free-agent auction house<\/a> in the first place \u2014 because there was literally no player like him. So they had no idea what or whom to compare him to.<\/p>\n What was he worth? There was only one way to find out. And now we know.<\/p>\n So what is it about this guy? Why did he just blow that ginormous hole in all the baseball mathematicians\u2019 WAR per dollar formulas? Let\u2019s delve into that.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a legend \n Kyle Schwarber celebrates after his swing-off heroics earned him All-Star MVP honors. (Jamie Squire \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Ordinarily, I wouldn\u2019t have thought to drop that word,\u00a0legend,\u00a0on a player like this.\u00a0But in Schwarber\u2019s case, I didn\u2019t invent it. I actually stole it \u2014 from the Marlins\u2019 Kyle Stowers.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s roll back the clock to this summer\u2019s All-Star Game. Remember who the MVP of that game was? Right. A man named Schwarber, which was kind of interesting considering the box score still tells us he went hitless in that game!<\/p>\n But did he, though? Remember how that All-Star Game was decided? It was tied after regulation, so it was settled with a penalty-kick shootout \u2014 wait, I mean a spur-of-the-moment mini-home run derby. And who took over that little swat-off? Who else? The Schwarbino.<\/p>\n He got three swings. One of them landed over the center-field fence. Another was a ridiculous 461-foot space shuttle that almost cleared the upper deck in right-center field. The third was a down-to-one-knee Reggie Jackson special that roared into the Chop House out in right field in Atlanta. And this game \u2026 was \u2026 over.<\/p>\n As we watched his teammates shower Schwarber with hugs, love and admiration that night, it was a vivid reminder of how the sport views him. Hitch your trailer to the Kyle Schwarber Express, and amazing things seem to happen. Just ask Stowers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy\u2019s already a legend,\u201d Stowers said that night. \u201cThis just adds to it.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s a historian<\/p>\n It\u2019s always hard to predict how any player is going to produce in his age-33, -34, -35, -36 or -37 seasons. But certain types of hitters age better than others. And the Phillies have done projections that suggest Schwarber just might be one of those hitters.<\/p>\n Over the last four years \u2026\u00a0only one man in baseball has hit more home runs than the 187 Schwarber has launched since he signed with the Phillies in 2022. That would be Aaron Judge, with 210. Schwarber is tied for second-most with Ohtani. Pete Alonso is a distant third, with 158. Which means \u2026<\/p>\n Watch out, Babe Ruth \u2026\u00a0Let\u2019s just say Schwarber has another season in him like the 56-homer show he put on in 2025. Here is where he would stand on the all-time list of most home runs by a player in his first five seasons with a team (hat tip: Sarah Langs of MLB.com):<\/p>\n Schwarber, Phillies \u2014 243 But even if Schwarber hits \u201conly\u201d the 47 bombs he has averaged per year as a Phillie, he would be right on the Babe\u2019s heels, with 234. Heck, if he hits \u201conly\u201d 34, he would still pass McGwire to rank second all-time on a very cool list. But also \u2026<\/p>\n Club 500 is on his radar\u2026\u00a0Schwarber has already smoked 340 homers through his age-32 season. So the 500-Homer Club could be in reach of a guy like this. To add another 160 homers, he would need to average 32 trots a season over the life of this deal to make it to 500. But for what it\u2019s worth, he has hit at least 32 in the last six full seasons in a row.<\/p>\n On the other hand, no active player has hit 160 or more from age 33 on. But you don\u2019t have to look too far back in time to find players who have hit that many. If we start that clock in 2010, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Albert Pujols, Adri\u00e1n Beltr\u00e9\u00a0and Nelson Cruz have all done it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2225300855-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Babe Ruth, Yankees\u00a0 \u2014 235
Mark McGwire (Cardinals) \u2014 220<\/p>\n