Major League Baseball

Kyle Schwarber is not your typical leadoff hitter, and that's fine by the Phillies

Published Sep. 7, 2023 4:42 p.m. ET

The Phillies' sturdy, barrel-chested slugger, in the midst of yet another outrageous offensive stretch, understands he’s not your grandparent’s type of leadoff hitter. He knows that for most of baseball history, the first hitter in the order tended to be a slight, slap-hitting speedster with bushels of stolen bases. Think Lou Brock, Rod Carew, Kenny Lofton, Juan Pierre or Ichiro Suzuki — none of whom look or play anything like Kyle Schwarber.

Times have certainly changed, and nowadays, leadoff hitters are chosen primarily for their ability to get on base. But even though "Moneyball" and the ensuing analytical revolution have reshaped our understanding of what a leadoff hitter looks like, Schwarber remains an atypical choice.

His batting average still starts with a one. He has zero steals this season in just two unsuccessful attempts. All this despite new rule changes designed to increase stolen bases and increase batting average.

"I'm not a guy that's gonna steal 30 bags by any means. But you know, maybe like 29," Schwarber joked to FOX Sports.

Simply put, no leadoff hitter in baseball is slower, more prone to strikeouts or less likely to record a base hit.

According to Baseball Savant, the lead-footed lefty’s average sprint speed is 24.8 feet per second, putting him in the sixth percentile league-wide and making him the slowest leadoff man in baseball. When hitting first, Schwarber has struck out 34.6% of the time, far and away the highest mark for a leadoff hitter. His .345 OBP is good, though not quite elite. And of course, Schwarber’s .195 batting average is over 30 points lower than any other hitter with at least 50 games started in the one-hole.

And yet Phillies manager Rob Thomson has penciled Schwarber’s name first in the lineup every single game he’s started since June 2nd. Given the 30-year-old’s recent heater — he has a 1.361 OPS in his last 18 games — there’s no reason to expect a shift in strategy. Despite his abnormal profile, Schwarber’s unique approach and unquestionable experience make him an incredibly valuable opening act in Philadelphia’s rip-roaring offense, which just obliterated the franchise record for most homers in a month and has catapulted the club to the third-best record in the National League.

But let’s turn back the clock to 2019, when Schwarber started leading off somewhat regularly for the Cubs. At first, he had to rethink his perception of what a leadoff hitter was supposed to be. Dexter Fowler, his main predecessor in that role on the north side, was an entirely different player. But Schwarber remembers thinking about how he could take what Fowler did and make it his own.

"Dexter was unbelievable at it," Schwarber said. "But then it hit me that a lot of the things leadoff hitters do, I do those things naturally. You know? See a lot of pitches, work a count. So as I started doing it more and more and more, I got more comfortable."

Seeing pitches is Schwarber’s specialty. Patience is his virtue. Only Juan Soto swings the bat less often. And more importantly, just eight players are averaging more pitches per plate appearance (4.23) this season than Philly’s leadoff man. For a player like Schwarber, who is particularly skilled at communicating visual information to his teammates, the more pitches he sees as the first batter of the game, the better it is for everyone.

"If I can make [pitchers] feel like they’re not settling in right away, where they have to work from pitch one, that’s a win for me and for the rest of our lineup," he said.

This selective approach is only possible because Schwarber can, from time to time, send a baseball flying into the great beyond. That outrageous raw juice means starting pitchers are often hesitant to throw him a strike with the first pitch of a game.

The numbers show why.

In the 86 games Schwarber has led off this season, he’s swung at the first pitch just 10 times. But in those 10 swings, he has four home runs, two doubles and a single. On Wednesday, he set a franchise record by smacking his 10th leadoff homer of the season, giving him 41 overall for the year. You’d be careful, too.

So, while Schwarber isn’t numb to his flaws, like the lack of footspeed or comically low batting average, he understands his contributions as a leadoff hitter manifest in different ways.

"F---, do I wish I was hitting .260? Absolutely," Schwarber said. "Seeing [the batting average start with a one] on the scoreboard f---ing sucks. But that’s the reality of the situation. I’ve got to accept it and find ways to still be a productive player.

"Now, if I was hitting .180 and had a .250 on-base, that’d be a real problem."

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He played college baseball, poorly at first, then very well, very briefly. Jake lives in New York City where he coaches Little League and rides his bike, sometimes at the same time. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.