Outsized home runs, outsized reputation, outsized expectations.
Maybe Kyle Schwarber never had a chance to live up to the Ruthian portrait many of us painted of him.
After exploding on the Cubs scene in 2015 and making a Hollywood comeback in the 2016 World Series, Schwarber regressed. Or did he? Perhaps “settled in” is a better way to put it. He belted 94 home runs from 2017 through 2019, but he also got demoted to Class AAA Iowa, struck out a ton and lived in the lower .200s.
He was a good player — and a great teammate — but not the hitting machine we wanted him to be.