‘It’s going to be a fun ride’: Kyle Schwarber wants Phillies to lean into ending playoff drought

The former Cub has some experience with ending droughts, and he wants the Phillies to embrace the challenge ahead.

Kyle Schwarber (right) congratulates Nick Castellanos after a home run.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Published July 20, 2022, 5:32 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES — From the day he got drafted in 2014 until the last out of the 2016 World Series was recorded, Kyle Schwarber didn’t notice much variation in the drumbeat around the Chicago Cubs.

“Everyone hung on to that 106 years, 107 years, 108 years,” Schwarber said, referring to his former team’s historic championship drought. “That was something that we played for, right?”

OK, so the Phillies haven’t gone a century-plus without making the playoffs, even if their absence from October sometimes feels like 10 years going on 108. But Schwarber’s point remains. Rather than feeling consumed by the National League’s longest active postseason dry spell, the All-Star left fielder wants his teammates to lean into it.

As the Phillies continue taking a four-day All-Star break, they are percentage points — 0.0006938, to be exact — ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals for the final NL playoff spot. (They also hold a tiebreaker after winning the season series.) Of their remaining 70 games, 43 are against teams with losing records. They probably need at least 86 wins to secure the third wild card. That means they would have to finish 37-33.

Doable? Certainly.

But they have been here before. The Phillies were in first place at the All-Star break in 2018; they held a wild card at the break in 2019; they were in the hunt late in 2020 and 2021, too. Each time, they came up short for reasons that ranged from a lack of pitching depth (Hans Crouse started Game 156 last year) and injuries to key players (Rhys Hoskins and Zach Eflin in 2021; Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto in 2020, etc.) to bullpen blowups and not enough big hits.

Then there was the specter of not making the playoffs since 2011 and all that comes with it in a sports-crazed place like Philadelphia.

Maybe it’s a matter of perspective, but based on his experience in Chicago, Schwarber sees it not as a weight around the Phillies’ ankles but rather a potential wind at their back.

“It’s definitely the thing that’s out there for our fans and for us,” Schwarber said Tuesday before the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. “I definitely think it’s more of the advantage aspect. Maybe that’s just me because I’m new and coming in for my first year, and guys could be there for a little while and they’ve been in first place before and haven’t done it.

“I don’t think we go out there and berate people with it every day, like ‘We need to make the playoffs, we need to make the playoffs.’ But we can definitely hang on to that.”

There are other motivators, too. Harper intends to play again this season, and it’s possible he will have the pins removed from his fractured left thumb by the end of next week. Jean Segura believes his return from a broken right index finger is ahead of schedule and could lead him back to the lineup next month.

Getting them back would be akin to a midseason acquisition.

Speaking of which, the trade deadline is Aug. 2, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has a history of being opportunistic when his teams are in contention.

“I never doubt Dombrowski,” Harper said recently. “He’s always going out there and doing what he needs to do to help this team get to where we need to be. I would think if we’re in that third spot of the wild card after this trip [leading into the All-Star break], I don’t see why we wouldn’t go and do it.”

Well, guess what?

It’s unclear what the Phillies will do. The bullpen has a 2.92 ERA since June 1, the third-best mark in baseball. So, perhaps the focus will be on center field, where they rank last in the NL with a .597 OPS. With Eflin still hobbled by a bruised right knee, they could use another starting pitcher, too.

Dombrowski could target a big move for, say, Cincinnati Reds All-Star right-hander Luis Castillo, but several rival scouts suggested that might mean giving up at least two top prospects. A smaller deal for a pitcher with an expiring contract (Los Angeles Angels starter Noah Syndergaard? Cubs closer David Robertson?) might provide a suitable boost.

Whatever the case, the Phillies have given Dombrowski reason to be active. They rose from the depths of a 22-29 record under deposed manager Joe Girardi by going 19-8 in June. They pulled out of a four-game losing streak last week with three wins before the break in Miami, where they hadn’t swept a series since 2010. They’re 27-14 under interim manager Rob Thomson, 12-8 since Harper took that fastball off his thumb.

“You look at the way that we’ve played, we’ve been playing really good baseball,” Schwarber said. “There’s been a lot of things that have happened this year that we can hold on to. We lose Segy, we lose Bryce, guys have come in and stepped up and not been taken aback by the moment. Those are all things you hold on to.”

Taking down a decade-long playoff drought remains the Phillies’ biggest challenge. But Schwarber doesn’t think it needs to be daunting.

“If we’re going to add [at the trade deadline], we’re going to add. But if we don’t, look at the way the team’s been playing,” he said. “It’s going to be a fun ride. We’re all looking forward to the second half. We just have to keep continuing to do that once we come out of this break. It’s going to be full steam ahead. Let’s go.”