It is a tough pill to swallow, but this might be the last best season for the Philadelphia Phillies to win a World Series with their core. Over the last three years, the Phillies have been one of the stronger teams in the National League, but have failed to claim the ultimate prize. In fact, every subsequent postseason run has been worse than the one prior, starting with losing the World Series back in 2022.

This is coinciding with a change of guard in the front office. Preston Mattingly is the team’s new general manager, while Dave Dombrowski is still around in a president of baseball operations role. What I am getting at is the Phillies spent big in the three offseasons leading up to this one and do not have a ring to show for it. This is why we will have to monitor the Kyle Schwarber situation closely.

Schwarber may only have a career .230 batting average, but he can be a spark plug in any offense. Prior to coming to Philadelphia on a four-year contract ahead of the 2022 season, you could argue he was productive at the plate for his three previous teams in the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox. Philadelphia is playing with its food by not extending him heading into this year.

With division rivals like the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets not going away, the time has to be now!

Philadelphia Phillies are running out of time to extend Kyle Schwarber

What I keep going back to with the Phillies is these championship windows only stay open for so long. While there are teams that can sustain year in and year out like the Los Angeles Dodgers, they can also outspend anyone, while taking advantage of its division largely being dysfunctional. Of course, they only have two World Series championships in my lifetime and I am 35, going 36 at the moment…

See, the Phillies spent big and came up empty-handed. While they should be commended for going all-in after a period of great struggle for the franchise, now is not the time to take your foot off the gas. Atlanta had a year from hell offensively and with the injury bug. New York is dead set on getting a World Series before Steve Cohen runs out of money trying to buy one. You have to compete with this!

Overall, I see Schwarber entering the year on an expiring contract as a sign that the Phillies are not all that serious about bringing him back. He can hit, but never for a high average. His defense leaves something to be desired. With him being on the wrong side of 30, I can tell you how Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos would go about the situation if he was in Atlanta and not in Philadelphia…

The best thing Schwarber can do is put together one of his finest seasons out of Indiana to date.