Last Updated on September 26, 2025 by Matt Musico
On the heels of a four-homer game and while putting the finishing touches on his first 50-homer season, Kyle Schwarber rookie baseball cards are getting some time in the spotlight again.
Schwarber became the 21st player ever to go deep four times in a single game on August 28. He joined Eugenio Suarez and Nick Kurtz as the third player to accomplish the feat this year, which has never happened in MLB history.
With the left-handed slugger’s rookie cards back in the spotlight, Sports Illustrated’s Matt Schilling recently highlighted three to keep an eye out for.
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3 Essential Kyle Schwarber Rookie Baseball Cards
According to Schilling, here are the three rookie cards that deserve your attention:
- 2014 Bowman Draft Picks (Card No. DP2): This is the most accessible option with 318 PSA 10s available. It’s perfect for collectors looking to get in without breaking the bank — gem mint copies are selling for $40-$51.
- 2016 Topps Chrome Baseball Vertical Refractor (Card No. 166) – With only 92 PSA 10s in existence, this is the premium choice. It fetches $60-$80 and is the scarcest graded population of Schwarber’s key rookies.
- 2016 Bowman Chrome (Card No. 31): Here’s the sleeper pick with just 41 PSA 10s available, currently trading in the $25-$30 range. But given its rarity, it could be undervalued.
2014 Bowman Draft Picks: Where It All Began
The 2014 Bowman Draft Picks card captures Schwarber at the start of his pro baseball career, right after the Cubs grabbed him with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft. What I love about this card is that it shows Schwarber as a catcher.
Based on how his career has turned out, seeing him don the tools of ignorance feels like a fever dream at this point.
From a collecting standpoint, raw copies of this card can still be found for $1-$3, while PSA 9s go for $3-$12. That makes this an accessible entry point for collectors who want to own a Schwarber rookie without paying a premium price.
Schwarber’s Monster 2025 and Free Agency Implications
This season has been electric for Schwarber. While that four-homer performance is certainly a highlight, it’s just one of the recent chapters that’s defining a career year. Through 703 plate appearances, Schwarber is slashing .241/.367/.562 with 54 home runs, 130 RBI, and 108 runs scored. His 150 OPS+ is on track to be a career-high mark, while his 4.4 bWAR is already a new single-season personal best.
He’s just the second player to surpass the 50-homer plateau in Philadelphia Phillies history, and has a shot at breaking Ryan Howard’s franchise record (58 in 2006). His timing couldn’t be better, either. The 2025 campaign is Schwarber’s final season of a four-year, $79 million deal he signed with Philly.
Schwarber will enter free agency as the market’s premier power hitter, which is a great place to be. But it sounds like Phillies owner John Middleton is committed to keeping him in the City of Brotherly Love.
“We need no motivation whatsoever when it comes to Kyle Schwarber,” he said in July, via ESPN. “He’s great. We thought he was great when we signed him years ago. We thought he was great consistently through the years. There’s nothing Kyle does that surprises us. No matter how great he is, we expect that from Kyle. He’s a great person in the dugout. He’s a great person in the clubhouse.”
Can Schwarber Reach the 500-Homer Club?
The 500-homer club is one of baseball’s most exclusive fraternities. Only 28 players have gone deep that many times during their career. Even though it no longer guarantees a spot in Cooperstown, reaching that milestone would certainly help his case when the time comes.
Schwarber will turn 33 years old next March. At the time of this writing, he’s slugged 338 homers in the big leagues. Doing some quick napkin math tells us he’s 162 dingers shy of 500. If he were to play another five years, he’d have to average about 33 homers per season to make it happen. That number drops down to 27 per season if he plays another six years.
Thinking about a power hitter sticking around until they’re 38 or 39 years old feels like a tall ask. But it’s not as tall when you consider he’s primarily a designated hitter. We saw David Ortiz hit 35-plus homers per season over the last three years of his Hall of Fame career (he played until he was 40). For what it’s worth, Spotrac is currently pegging Schwarber’s market value for his next deal at four years and $100 million.
So, the idea of Schwarber joining the 500-homer club isn’t crazy, especially when you remember he hasn’t hit fewer than 38 dingers per season in each of the last four years (and has hit 40-plus three times). Grabbing an affordable Schwarber rookie card now could pay dividends in the future if he does reach that milestone and also finds his way into Cooperstown one day.
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