The Philadelphia Phillies lineup is among the most lethal group in baseball. The pop they can provide can swarm teams with home runs and drain opposing pitchers with their ability to get on base. Spring training is days away, and that same dangerous lineup will need some tuning after yet another down effort in October.
The designated hitter became universal in 2022, meaning National League teams have carried an extra hitter going into games. Hindsight suggests the rule change has saved the Phillies, with Harper's elbow injury and bringing aboard Kyle Schwarber.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson has also taken an unconventional approach with Schwarber batting leadoff the past three seasons. Schwarber was anything from what you typically saw from a leadoff hitter, but his batting first in games gave an early spark or thunder at times. That could be set to change in 2025.
Will Kyle Schwarber remain at the top of the Phillies lineup?
Schwarber is a natural leader for the Phillies. He has been the team's home run leader each of the past three seasons. Schwarber's ability to jump on a pitch in his first at-bat is remarkable and why he earned himself the MLB record for most leadoff home runs in a season with 15 in 2024. Schwarber is a competitor and knows that changes still need to be made to the lineup and that involves his potential bump from the leadoff spot, per Kyle Odegard of Sports Talk Philly.
“I’m going to do what they tell me to do,” Schwarber said, per Odegard. “For us, it’s all about trying to find the best possible way to win a game. No one has a personal attachment to where they hit. They just go out there wherever their name is written, and they go hit. If we feel like that’s the best lineup, we’re going to do it, and wherever I hit that day, I’m going to do it to my best ability.”
The Phillies remained consistent all year long with the top three when they were healthy. Thomson now has a different tune for spring training, with a plan to possibly move Schwarber and slide Trea Turner into the leadoff spot. The Phillies have any number of possibilities now that Schwarber can be moved and still put up a .366 on-base percentage as he did in 2024. Bryson Stott was another name mentioned as a potential promotion from lower in the lineup.
The biggest question is the pitching matchups against the Phillies lineup. With the plethora of left-handed hitters they have, Thomson wants to avoid stacking one after the other at the top of the order.
"The thing is that we're so left-handed, and you want Harper and you want Schwarber getting as many at-bats as you can," Thomson said recently on The Phillies Show podcast. "Now you put Stott in the leadoff spot now you're really left-handed at the top, and it might create a problem, even if you're facing a right-hander, everybody's got three lefties in the 'pen it seems, and they'll just start matching up on you."
Sliding Schwarber down to the cleanup spot gives Harper more at-bats during the game and gives him added protection to see more pitches if Harper bats third, per Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia. First and foremost, Schwarber is a great teammate who wants the club to succeed. If that means sliding down to give the club a chance to address an issue, it's worth a try. Spring training is the time to try it out, so nothing comes as a surprise before Opening Day.