Should the Phillies trade Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber? Why blockbuster deal doesn't make sense

Moving on from the veteran sluggers wouldn't help Philadelphia in the short term and probably not the long term either

Oct 2, 2026 at 1:19 pm ET • 4 min read

The Phillies were bounced from the playoffs with a Game 3 Wild Card Series loss to the Braves on Thursday night. Given that the Phillies made the World Series in 2022 and have regressed in playoff performance since (NLCS in 2023, NLDS in 2024, NLDS in 2025 and WCS in 2026) along with a relatively old roster, there has been a stream of "end of an era" discussion on Friday. 

It's not unreasonable. There are certainly plenty of questions for the front office to answer. There are bound to be overreactions. I overreact a decent amount of the time, so I get it. It happens. We're often prisoners of the moment and emotion is a real thing. 

I do want to push back on a specific idea, though, as floated by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic: 

Trading Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber? Don't love the idea, but everything needs to be under consideration. Everything.  

Now, be sure that this isn't to attack the writer there, as I have the utmost respect for him and he even said he doesn't love the idea. I can see a lot of people running with this, though, and I'll offer up my opinion that this just isn't a feasible idea for the Phillies. 

First off, Harper has a no-trade clause and it's been pretty clear over the last several years that he's now Philly through-and-through and doesn't want to go anywhere. Schwarber also has a no-trade clause with his 10-and-5 rights and now has a family with two young children. 

Let's say either or both would accept a trade. Would it help the Phillies other than salary relief? 

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Schwarber is a 34-year-old designated hitter heading into 2027 with four years and $132 million left on his deal. How many teams would give the Phillies anything of value while also taking on a large portion of the salary? The answer is not that many and it might be zero. 

Harper needs to permanently go back to first base and he'll also be 34 years old next season. He has five years and roughly $125 million left on his deal. Again, how many teams would give good value back to the Phillies and salary relief? The number is higher than with Schwarber, but not by much. 

This isn't to say neither player is good. Both are very productive offensively. In fact, they were the Phillies' only two good hitters this season. Harper had a 131 OPS+ and Schwarber was at 128 with 100 being the average player at getting on base and hitting for power. No other qualified players on the Phillies were in the vicinity of Harper or Schwarber. Only Bryson Stott at 98 even approached league average. Brandon Marsh finished at 90, Alec Bohm 87 and Trea Turner 81. Yuck. 

Schwarber and Harper are much more valuable to the Phillies than they would be to any other team, given the circumstances. And, unless the Phillies are going full-on rebuild, they might as well play out the contracts and try to win with them. 

If you look at how things are set up for next season with the pitching staff, a rebuild doesn't make sense. 

• Jesús Luzardo made a turn toward ace this season. He's under team control through at least 2031. 
• Cristopher Sánchez will likely finish in the top three of Cy Young voting. He's under team control through at least 2032.
• Zack Wheeler showed flashes of being really good while returning from an incredibly tough surgical procedure. He's signed for one more season. He could well return to ace form. 
• Aaron Nola doesn't have a tradeable deal, but hey, he had a 10-start stretch with a 2.10 ERA late in the season.
• There were still inconsistencies, but Andrew Painter, at age 23, made big strides during the season and perhaps turned a corner with his three-inning effort in relief in Game 2 vs. the Braves. Next year could well be a breakout. 

That's a five-man rotation and maybe one of the very best in the majors. 

Jhoan Duran is a top-three closer, too. 

The starting point here is a great rotation and closer combination, along with Harper and Schwarber being excellent hitters. That's a better nucleus than most teams have. Ownership is committed to doing what it takes to land a winner for the city of Philadelphia and Dave Dombrowski is a front office executive who has proven he's good at making good teams into champions. 

Keep taking as many shots at the postseason as possible in hopes that one of these years, the hot streak lines up properly for a championship. We've seen a well-timed hot streak pay off in recent years for teams like the Nationals, Braves and Rangers -- and maybe it'll be the Padres this year? -- so we know it can happen. Hell, the 2022 Phillies were right there. 

The team defense needs to improve and there should be some tinkering with the position players, but the foundation here is far too strong to bail on Schwarber and/or Harper, especially when it wouldn't improve the big-league roster in the near-term.