As noted in this MLB.com article written by Mike Lupica, Kyle Schwarber is having a very unusual season. Schwarber is set to become the first player in MLB history to hit 40 homers, score 100 runs, strikeout 200 times and bat below .200 (currently he is hitting .198).
What Lupica doesn't mention in his article is despite having cracked 45 home runs and scored 102 runs, and sporting an OPS+ of 122, Schwarber is functionally a replacement level player by WAR. bWAR has him at 0.5 WAR this season, and climbing that high has been a pretty recent development, for most of the season he was flirting with being below replacement level.
Schwarber's real issue is not the strikeouts or the low batting average, it's his abysmal defense. Schwarber really should be a DH, but with Bryce Harper occupying that spot on the Phillies, he has been forced to make 101 appearances in the outfield, were he has massive negative value using pretty much any advanced metric you want to look at. Baseball-Reference has Schwarber with an oWAR of 2.7 and a dWAR of -2.9.
Yet despite the advanced metrics showing Schwarber should be of minimal value to a team, that isn't anywhere close to functionally important he feels. He's hitting leadoff for a good team that has a great offense, and despite the high strikeout rate and low batting average, I imagine most fans would be excited to see him in the lineup each day, and opposing fans fearful of what he might do at the plate. The Phillies signed him to a 4/$80 million contract after the Red Sox declined to bring him back, and you never hear about that being a bad deal despite Schwarber bringing back minimal value by WAR metrics.
I wonder if this is the case of Schwarber's terrible defense being forgotten about because he occasionally hits a ball into New Jersey, if fans/managers/front offices are once again underrating the value of strong defensive play in favor of slugging. At the same time, it seems impractical to think that Schwarber is truly providing minimal value despite what the advanced metrics are saying. I know their was a debate about whether or not the Sox should have brought him back, and the last thing the Sox need is another butcher in the field, but I can't also deny the team would be more exciting if Schwarber was in the lineup.
What Lupica doesn't mention in his article is despite having cracked 45 home runs and scored 102 runs, and sporting an OPS+ of 122, Schwarber is functionally a replacement level player by WAR. bWAR has him at 0.5 WAR this season, and climbing that high has been a pretty recent development, for most of the season he was flirting with being below replacement level.
Schwarber's real issue is not the strikeouts or the low batting average, it's his abysmal defense. Schwarber really should be a DH, but with Bryce Harper occupying that spot on the Phillies, he has been forced to make 101 appearances in the outfield, were he has massive negative value using pretty much any advanced metric you want to look at. Baseball-Reference has Schwarber with an oWAR of 2.7 and a dWAR of -2.9.
Yet despite the advanced metrics showing Schwarber should be of minimal value to a team, that isn't anywhere close to functionally important he feels. He's hitting leadoff for a good team that has a great offense, and despite the high strikeout rate and low batting average, I imagine most fans would be excited to see him in the lineup each day, and opposing fans fearful of what he might do at the plate. The Phillies signed him to a 4/$80 million contract after the Red Sox declined to bring him back, and you never hear about that being a bad deal despite Schwarber bringing back minimal value by WAR metrics.
I wonder if this is the case of Schwarber's terrible defense being forgotten about because he occasionally hits a ball into New Jersey, if fans/managers/front offices are once again underrating the value of strong defensive play in favor of slugging. At the same time, it seems impractical to think that Schwarber is truly providing minimal value despite what the advanced metrics are saying. I know their was a debate about whether or not the Sox should have brought him back, and the last thing the Sox need is another butcher in the field, but I can't also deny the team would be more exciting if Schwarber was in the lineup.