They Gave Up On Him, Now He's Chasing Babe Ruth [7:04]

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

It’s not the Cubs but the Red Sox that so royally screwed up by letting Schwarber go. The Cubs at least won a title with him.

Not only did the Cubs pass on him, so did the Red Sox and Mets. Illustrates how so many MLB teams can be a poor judge of talent.

⚾😁

There’s nobody alive today that would threaten anyone who gets close to breaking one of Babe Ruth’s records.

Not only did the Cubs pass on him, so did the Red Sox and Mets. Illustrates how so many MLB teams can be a poor judge of talent.

The Mets traded 2026 MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javier Baez, so no one comes close to their inability to judge talent.

Miz is going to win the Cy Young and MVP this year.

Schwarber is already 33-1/2 years old and just recently passed up Freddie Freeman in homers — 385 to 383 — for 72nd on the all-time list.

Wanna talk RBI instead of homers? Schwarbs doesn’t even crack the top 400.

There’s one stat where Schwarber wins, though: he already has over 400 more strikeouts than Ruth ever got... since he K’s at a rate over twice that of Ruth.

Oh, by the way: Aaron Judge is tied for 70th with 386 homers... but he’s actually older at 34 years and 4 months.

Saw Jeter play in the minors. Thought he completely sucked. What do I know?

Doesn’t open

Can you just tell us?

There needs to be a rule here that you don’t post a youtube video. If you can’t include a simple one sentence about what you post, don’t post. What record is he pursuing?

The Red Sox famously let Babe Ruth go—hence “the curse of the Bambino.” They next won the World Series in 2004.

Wanna talk RBI instead of homers? Schwarbs doesn’t even crack the top 400.

For much of his time with the Phillies, he's been batting lead-off, believe it or not. He's the king of starting a game off with a home run.

Yeah, I still think that’s a weird thing... like when Acuna or Baldwin leads off for Atlanta. I firmly believe in putting your RBI guys in the 3-5 slots.

I firmly believe in putting your RBI guys in the 3-5 slots.

For the Phillies, that's been Harper, not Schwarber. The trouble is, they need a 5-hole hitter who can protect Harper and the bats they've tried out in that spot have been inconsistent to say the least.

Opens fine here.

There needs to be a rule here that those who complain about content no one is forcing them to view get a one week timeout.

Transcript

Five years ago, the Chicago Cubs made a decision they would regret for years to come. Change comes to Chicago as the Cubs non-tender four players, including slugger Kyle Schwarber, on Wednesday night. They decided Kyle Schwarber wasn’t worth keeping. They didn’t trade him. They didn’t lose him in free agency. They non-tendered him, essentially saying it’s not worth paying you the $10 million to keep you for another year.

Fast forward five years later, and the player Chicago gave up on is doing something almost nobody in baseball history has ever done. He’s hit 232 home runs in his first five seasons with Philadelphia. This puts him among the greats of the game. There’s only one player in MLB history who has hit more in his first five seasons with the team, and that’s Babe Ruth. And with the season winding down, Schwarber’s just three home runs away. To understand how crazy this is, we need to go back to December of 2020 because Kyle Schwarber wasn’t some random player the Cubs decided they didn’t need anymore. He was a Cubs legend. Chicago selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 draft. A little more than a year later, he was already in the major leagues, and almost immediately we saw his ridiculous power.

Now that is a bomb. We just talked about the ball carrying here at PNC. We just saw it. That ball cleared the right field bleachers by a long way. Way even as a rookie, Schwarber tried to will his team to the World Series by hitting five home runs in the eight playoff games he started, but they’d eventually fall to the Mets in the NLCS. The Cubs looked to build upon that in 2016, but Schwarber’s career took a devastating turn early in the season against the D-backs. He was chasing down a fly ball, and disaster struck. I hope they’re all right. Schwarber’s injured. He had a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee. His regular season appeared to be over, and he pulled off one of the most craziest comebacks you’ll ever see. He returned for the World Series, and he didn’t waste any time making an impact. Great hitter out all year. He flies one into right. Back at the track, it is [cheering] off the wall.

Welcome back, Kyle Schwarber, with a two-out double in game two. Kyle swings and lines a base hit into right center. Rizzo around third heading home. The throw goes to third base. Rizzo scores. Two outs. A pitch. Ground ball up the middle. Base hit. Here comes Zas. Cubs lead four. And in the deciding game seven, all he did was go seven for 17, reach base in half of his plate appearances, and helped the Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years. Schwarber was forever part of Cubs history. And over the next three seasons, he continued to hit for power: 30 homers, 26 homers, and a career-high 38 in 2019. Then came 2020, and everything changed. In the pandemic-shortened season, Schwarber was a below-average hitter and hit just .188.

After the season, Chicago had a decision to make. He was entering his final year of arbitration. Do they keep him and pay him almost $10 million, or do they let him go? Well, they needed to cut costs. So instead, they let him go. And on December 2, 2020, Chicago non-tendered Kyle Schwarber. Looking back now, the decision looks like a terrible misstep. But at the time, it didn’t seem totally unreasonable. He was coming off a season where he was basically under replacement level. He didn’t provide defensive value. There was no universal DH, so he had to play the field if he wanted his bat in the lineup. Well, the next month, Washington signed him to a one-year deal worth $10 million. And Schwarber had something to prove. There it goes. Game winner. See you later.

He described himself as having a chip on his shoulder. Well, that chip turned into one of the most ridiculous hot streaks you’ll ever see. In June of 2021, he went crazy. During one 10-game stretch, he hit 12 home runs, tying the major league record. He smashed 16 home runs in the month of June alone. And after being dumped by Chicago just five months earlier, he was an All-Star for the first time in his career. Washington eventually traded Schwarber to Boston at the deadline, where he helped the Red Sox reach the ALCS. By the end of the season, he had produced a .928 OPS, good enough for ninth best in baseball. Not only was he able to rebound, but he had just turned himself into one of the best hitters in baseball. And that’s when the Philadelphia Phillies came calling.

Before the 2022 season, Philadelphia handed him a four-year, $79 million contract. And if fans thought his 2021 breakout was impressive, they had no idea what was coming because something about Schwarber in Philadelphia just clicked. In his first season as a Philly, 46 home runs, then 47, then 38, and then at the age of 32, he did something. He found a completely new level. In 2025, he hit a career-high 56 home runs. He drove in 132. This is a player who had never hit 40 home runs in a season before Philadelphia signed him. Then he did it three times in four years. Over those first four seasons in Philadelphia, he had 187 home runs, which brings us to 2026 and one of the coolest records nobody seems to be talking about.

Babe Ruth joined the Yankees in 1920. And over his first five seasons in New York, he hit 235 home runs. Well, for more than a century, nobody joining a new team has matched that level of immediate home run production. And in 2026, Schwarber had a chance. If he had hit 40, he’d have reached 227. That would make him in sole second place behind Ruth. But he didn’t stop at 40. He’s now at 45. That gives him 232 home runs as a Philly. Meaning the player the Cubs decided wasn’t worth tendering a contract to now needs just three home runs to tie Babe Ruth and four to pass him.

And here’s what makes the final weeks of Schwarber’s season even more interesting. While Schwarber’s been one of baseball’s premier power hitters for years, he’s never led all of Major League Baseball in home runs. It’s hard to believe. He did lead the National League with 46 in 2022, but Aaron Judge hit 62 in the American League. He led the National League with 56 in 2025, but Cal Raleigh hit 60 in the American League. Well, that could finally change. He’s sitting right at 45. But Pete Crow-Armstrong and Junior Caminero are right behind him. Both of them have had amazing hot streaks this year. So, while Schwarber has the lead, he’s going to have to finish strong if he wants his first home run title.

And I think that’s what makes Kyle Schwarber’s story so fascinating because we’re not talking about a player who followed a straight path to success. We’re talking about a player who, at .188, was non-tendered in his prime at 27 and had to totally rebuild his career. Well, five years later, he’s become the face of one of baseball’s best teams. He’s developed into one of the greatest power hitters of the generation, and now he’s chasing Babe Ruth. The Cubs decided to move on from him. It looked understandable at the time, but looking at it today, along with David Ortiz, it’s one of the most unlucky non-tenders in baseball history. And if Schwarber hits four more home runs, he’ll have a pretty incredible record to prove it.

Do you think Schwarber catches the Babe? Let me know below. And if you enjoy stories like this, consider subscribing. Thanks for watching. “He has just completed an improbable comeback. The streak continues...”

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