How Phillies' Kyle Schwarber became MLB's ultimate glue guy

ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyle Schwarber was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies before last season to hit for power, and in this, he excelled, mashing 52 homers in the regular season and postseason combined. That's more than anyone in baseball last season not named Aaron Judge. And Schwarber's home runs — parabolic, titanic, majestic as they often are — tended to have the effect of posterizing slam dunks in their impact on crowds, opponents and teammates.

In the StatCast era, in which everything is measured, Schwarber is an all-time leader in immeasurables, and a lot of that comes from his monster-hack exclamation points. But there is more in Schwarber that is untethered from data and yet tied directly to what the Phillies accomplished last season. His peers will tell you, in so many words, that he is three standard deviations from the norm in how he fosters connectivity among his peers.

«He is the best clubhouse guy I've run into in my entire career,» said the 56-year-old Kevin Long, the longtime hitting coach for the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Washington Nationals and now the Phillies. «And not only with the players, but with the coaching staff, the training staff. Literally everybody you could bring together, he's going to bring them together.

»His sole purposes are to be a good teammate, and to win. That's all he wants to do. When you watch him go about it, it's real; it's genuine. Day in and day out, you see him bring the team together."

Said Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh: «He's as good as it gets in the locker room, making sure all of his guys are ready to go — not only on the field, but mentally, spiritually, physically, are ready to play, as one unit.»

Schwarber's effectiveness as a messenger is in many