Is Kyle Schwarber having the best year of his career? He’s tied for the MLB lead in homers, he’s more than halfway to Ted Williams’ record of 84 straight games reaching base, and he’s top 10 in the majors in OBP. Pretty good way to head into free agency, all told. [ MLB.com]

Schwarber has evolved into an elite left-on-left hitter by changing his preparation, equipment and, perhaps more than anything, his mind.

Schwarber, two homers shy of 300, has always slugged. But he’s become more than that for the Phillies with free agency on the horizon.

There’s someone inside the Philadelphia Phillies organization who’s been helping Kyle Schwarber become a better hitter against left-handed pitchers — and the numbers show it’s working: he’s hitting .304 against them.

Kyle Schwarber homered twice to tie Aaron Judge for the major league lead and extended his on-base streak to 46 games, and Zack Wheeler struck out eight over seven innings as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-0.

Where Bregman settled into just being a very good player during his final seasons with the Houston Astros, he's played like the player who finished in the top five in AL MVP voting in 2018 and 2019 during the early part of his first campaign with the Red Sox.

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Kyle Schwarber is standing in front of his locker in the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field, and he's laughing and sm