{"id":575294,"date":"2026-02-16T08:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T08:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:52:16","slug":"bryce-harper-thought-kyle-schwarber-would-sign-with-reds-not-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575294\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper thought Kyle Schwarber would sign with Reds, not Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies<\/a> first baseman Bryce Harper<\/a> told reporters Feb. 15 that he was surprised teammate Kyle Schwarber, a former Middletown High School standout, opted to return to Philadelphia<\/a> instead of leaving in free agency for his hometown Cincinnati Reds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I thought Kyle was going to go to Cincinnati to tell you the truth,” Harper said, per NBC Sports Philadelphia<\/a>. “I thought it was a done deal, going to Cincinnati. Just because, I mean, being at home and things like that. Obviously, I didn’t – I didn’t know. But we kind of messed with him the whole time about him going back home and playing in front of his fan base and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t really talk to him too much. I don’t like getting into those situations. They’re going to do what’s best for their family and what’s best for their career. \u2026 Obviously, excited to have (Schwarber and JT Realmuto) back.”<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“Excited to have Schwarbs back,” Harper continued. “I mean, one of the best in baseball right now (at) hitting homers. And, you know, such a vibes guy for us, and such a team leader for us.”<\/p>\n

In 2018, Harper played for the Washington Nationals when he was accused by some of cheating<\/a> to beat Schwarber, then with the Chicago Cubs, in the MLB Home Run Derby.<\/p>\n

Schwarber, who starred for the Indiana University baseball team before starting his MLB career, celebrated the Hoosiers’ win<\/a> in the College Football Playoff championship game by sharing a photo<\/a> of confetti falling at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.<\/p>\n

In November, Middletown High School’s Wade E. Miller Arena hosted an event<\/a> to celebrate Schwarber’s baseball accomplishments and community commitment in a free, public event. Days earlier, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine\u00a0urged the Reds to sign Schwarber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December, Schwarber reached a five-year, $150 million deal with the Phillies.<\/p>\n

\"Kyle<\/p>\n

Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bryce Harper thought Kyle Schwarber would sign with Reds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper told reporters Feb. 15 that he was surprised teammate Kyle Schwarber, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,1207,24,535,50,4259,81,778,13657,4,5788,144,40,536,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-575294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bryce-harper","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-cincinnati","12":"tag-cincinnati-reds","13":"tag-cincinnatireds","14":"tag-kyle-schwarber","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-middletown-high-school","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-nbc-sports-philadelphia","19":"tag-philadelphia","20":"tag-phillies","21":"tag-reds","22":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116079464174362053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}