The Phillies are winning games again.
The Phillies are winning baseball games again, and the vibes are better. Johan Rojas is attacking first-pitch fastballs, and the starting pitching staff is doing its job. The defense could be better but progress is progress.
Brandon Marsh and Ranger Suárez will be back soon. Things are looking a lot better.
Kyle Schwarber’s April
Kyle Schwarber just had an excellent first month of the season. He ranks second in fWAR among designated hitters and has a higher wRC+ than Shohei Ohtani.
Reading into low sample sizes is tricky but the biggest jump in Schwarber’s offensive game is how much he’s cut down on strikeouts. He has hovered around 29% each of the last three seasons but is down to 21.8% in 2025.
In two strike counts, Schwarber is hitting .190 with a .811 OPS. Even when his back is against the wall, he still produces like a good hitter.
While his whiff rate is still the same and there are no indications he’s become a more aggressive hitter to avoid two-strike counts, he is converting a higher rate of his two-strike counts into walks.
In 2024, 58 of his 106 walks came in two-strike counts. This year, 17 of his 24 walks have come in two-strike counts.
I couldn’t look up his chase rate by count but that rate should suggest how much more patient he’s getting in two-strike counts.
The only other change is that Schwarber is back to pulling the baseball at his normal rate but is using the opposite field more in the process. It looks like a marriage between the adjustments he made last season but without sacrificing as much power.
There is a chance Schwarber was having an outlier April but he is currently on pace to have the best season of his career and is doing it with only a .250 BABIP. He might be a monster now.
Daniel Robert
The Phillies traded for Daniel Robert and optioned him to AAA. Robert was recently DFA’d by the Texas Rangers but the Phillies saw enough to include a prospect in the trade.
Robert has two minor league options remaining and is a strong candidate to be called up later in the year. He could bring a lot of the missing issues the Phillies bullpen is having.
In 11.2 innings at AAA, Robert has a 34% strikeout rate while only walking 8% of the hitters he’s facing. He carries one of the highest swing-and-miss rates in all of AAA. Robert’s fastball sits roughly 95-96 mph with a nasty sweeper.
The Phillies bullpen could use a lot of help. They still carry an ERA over 5 and are struggling to miss bats outside of José Alvarado and Matt Strahm.
If Robert’s AAA numbers are a little real and the stuff plays in the majors (both are big ifs), he would be exactly what the Phillies bullpen is looking for. Their right-handed relievers have a combined 18.5% strikeout rate, the second lowest in the sport.