Kyle Schwarber is known for many things in his brief, but storied (for Cubs fans, at least), career. From his mammoth scoreboard-landing home run in the 2015 playoffs (looking at you Cards fans!) to his 2016 World Series heroics, there is no doubting that Kyle Schwarber is one of the best young power hitters in the game. Unfortunately, Schwarber has dealt with trade rumors since joining the Cubs due in large part to one facet of his game: defense.
For years, Schwarber looked more like a linebacker than an outfielder, failing to pass what scouts call “the eye test”. Due to the Cubs already having a young stud at catcher with Willson Contreras, it became obvious that for Schwarber to get much needed at-bats, he would have to be play left field. While the strong arm from his catching days allowed for the occasional outfield assist, his poor route running and lack of athleticism always seemed to hinder him. It was the classic case of a team jeopardizing defensive value for offensive value.
Below is a chart of what Schwarber’s defense looked like from 2015 and 2017, via FanGraphs (season ending injury in 2016).
| Year | Innings | DRS (rank) | ARM (rank) | UZR (rank) | UZR/150 (rank) | Def (rank) |
| 2015* | 295.2 (52/59) | -3 (37/59) | -0.3 (25/59) | 0.2 (30/59) | 1.4 (24/59) | -1.4 (23/59) |
| 2017** | 821 (11/11) | -9 (8/11) | 4.1 (2/11) | 4.3 (4/11) | 8.8 (3/11) | 0.0 (3/11) |
*Since he only played in 295 innings in 2015, we pulled all LF with 250+ innings played.
**Since he only played in 821 innings in 2017, we pulled all LF with 800+ innings played.
As you can see, Kyle Schwarber wasn’t too bad in 2017, depending on which fielding metrics you prefer. DRS has more variability and requires one to three years’ worth of sample sizes; UZR on the other hand can be extrapolated over a full season using UZR/150. Not only did Schwarber improve his fielding, in terms of UZR/150, but he actually qualified as an above-average fielder in 2017.
Let’s fast forward to this season. I won’t focus on the story, as it has been well documented to this point, but Schwarber came into spring training looking like a new man. With an improved diet and workout plan, he showed up to camp having shed 30 lbs. and boy, has it shown in the results so far this season.
Looking at speed alone, Schwarber has increased his Sprint Speed (powered by Statcast) by .4 ft/sec and put himself over the league average threshold. Anytime a player crosses over league average threshold, especially coming from below-average side, it is a significant achievement.
| Year | Sprint Speed |
| 2017 | 26.9 ft/sec |
| 2018 | 27.3 ft/sec |
The improved athleticism and speed has clearly shown as he is taking much more efficient routes. Per RngR, which covers whether a player gets to more balls than the average player, Schwarber is already close to surpassing his season total last year. Take a look at this amazing play he made against the Cleveland Indian’s MVP Candidate Francisco Lindor on May 23.
The improved routes and athleticism is also giving him that extra millisecond to put him in a better position to throw players out. Already this year, he has five outfield assists. To put that into perspective, that is more than Jason Heyward and Tommy Pham, and tied with Yasiel Puig and Starling Marte. Pretty good company, huh?
What’s maybe most impressive about Schwarber’s transformation is that he is on pace for the best offensive season he’s had; his weight loss and focus on defensive hasn’t affected his offensive value in the slightest. Rather, his numbers are up this year virtually across the board. Below are some of the +/- from 2017 that explain his successes on offense.
| Metric | 2017-2018 Difference |
| K% | 6.5% reduction |
| Hard Hit % | 5% increase |
| wRC+ | 34-point increase |
| wOBA | 41-point increase |
To put it simply, Schwarber has effectively struck out less, barreled up the ball better, all while not sacrificing any bit of power. His ISO from last year to this year is essentially identical.
2018 has been a crazy year for baseball. What might be the craziest? That it is seemingly more and more likely that Kyle Schwarber is a dark horse to win a National League Gold Glove in 2018, all while still putting up monster numbers. Watch out folks, we might be seeing why Theo has stuck by him all these years!
