Jul 8, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) at bat against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images Kelley L Cox
The San Francisco Giants are the latest team that has been connected with Kyle Schwarber, with MLB.com's Jon Morosi reporting that Buster Posey and company have "checked in" on the slugger.
Certainly, it's not hard to imagine Schwarber hitting Barry Bonds-esque splash home runs into McCovey Cove if he played his home games at Oracle Park. Frankly, signing him to join a lineup with Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman would be a pretty good way to help the Giants try to close the gap with the two-time defending World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. Also, Schwarber's leadership might be especially valuable for the Giants, who have tabbed former University of Tennessee manager Tony Vitello — who has no MLB experience — as their next skipper.
Alas, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic wrote this about the offseason plans of the Giants as it pertains to Japanese starter Tatsuya Imai:
"According to club sources, because of a number of financial considerations, the Giants do not anticipate making the nine-figure investment required to sign Imai — or any of the other top pitchers on the free-agent market. Instead, the club is focusing on more modestly priced alternatives."
Maybe the Giants are more inclined to make a major move to upgrade their lineup, but after signing Chapman and Adames to megadeals and trading for Devers' massive contract, ownership in San Francisco may be cutting off Posey.
If that's the case, the Giants would join other reported suitors for Schwarber that it's hard to see actually giving him a $125+ million contract this offseason. Jeff Passan of ESPN previously reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates have interest in Schwarber, while Jon Heyman of The New York Post mentioned the Baltimore Orioles as being "among many pursuing" the NL MVP runner-up. You can probably even add the Cincinnati Reds — the team that the Middletown, Ohio native grew up rooting for — as another club that's been speculated upon as a fit for Schwarber, but would have to spend well outside their typical comfort zone to actually land him.
Perhaps — as Mike McGarry of The Press of Atlantic City suggested would be the case all year — there will be a team that views Schwarber as a culture changer and breaks the bank for him in the way that the Washington Nationals did for Jayson Werth with a seven-year/$126 million deal after the 2010 season.
But until he's putting on another jersey in a press conference, the most likely outcome still seems to be Schwarber returning for a fifth season (and beyond) with the Phillies.
In any event, the home stretch of the Schwarber sweepstakes might be coming up. The aforementioned Passan recently said that he would "be surprised" if Schwarber hasn't picked a team by the end of next week's MLB Winter Meetings.
