Kyle Schwarber is peak Ryan Howard, and that’s a compliment to both
It might feel a bit blasphemous to compare the two. Yet, Howard is the only comparison for Schwarber, who has a decent shot at passing the former on the all-time home run major league list.
What’s the best way to put Kyle Schwarber in perspective?
It depends on how well you remember the beginning of Ryan Howard’s career.
For those whose memories have faded, or for those too young to have them, Schwarber’s ongoing home run binge is a reminder of how good Howard was in his early prime. For the rest of us, Howard is the best example of how good Schwarber is right now.
The remarkable thing about Schwarber’s stretch of 20 home runs in 47 games this season is that it isn’t the best stretch of his career. In fact, he has bettered it twice. Just last season, Schwarber hit 23 home runs in 46 games from early July to late August. Four years earlier, he hit 23 homers for the Nationals in 47 games from early May to late June.
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Howard’s best 47-game stretch came in 2006, his first full big-league season, when he hit 25 home runs from late July to early September. The following season, he had a stretch of 20 home runs in 47 games from early June to late July.
It feels a little blasphemous to compare Schwarber to Howard. Schwarber could hit 60 home runs this season, and then 60 home runs in the next two seasons, and he’d still be 15 home runs shy of Howard for the career franchise record for a left-handed batter (382).
Yet, Howard is the only comparison for Schwarber, isn’t he? Schwarber’s 207 home runs in his first 674 games as a Phillie are four more than Howard had at that juncture. With 360 home runs across his full big league career, Schwarber has a decent shot at passing Howard on the all-time major league list this season.
The best litmus test is that number we mentioned earlier. Babe Ruth made 60 home runs the benchmark by which we measure the greatest sluggers of all time. Between Roger Maris in 1961 and Aaron Judge in 2022, the only players who got there were Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa during that wild four-year stretch when they combined to do it six times. We’ve memory-holed the steroid well enough that 60 remains the standard. The true test of a slugger is whether you can broach the topic with a straight face.
Judge hit 63 in 2022. Cal Raleigh hit 60 last season. Giancarlo Stanton hit 59 in 2017. Judge hit 58 in 2024. Howard hit 58 in 2006. Schwarber’s 56 from last season is the next highest single-season total since 2001.
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Can Schwarber get to 60? Sure. His two home runs against the Pirates on Saturday gave him 61 home runs over his previous 162 games. Of course, we should mention that Howard hit 65 in 162 from Sept. 6 of 2005 to Sept. 9 of 2006.
Time is a funny thing. Howard’s last big league game was 10 years ago. The Achilles injury that hastened his decline occurred 15 years ago. Howard’s first big-league game came 15 years after Mike Schmidt’s last. With a new five-year, $150 million contract signed this offseason, Schwarber is headed for membership in that pantheon when all is said and done.
