New Kyle Tucker update shouldn’t make Phillies fans upset originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Because the Philadelphia Phillies have found a lot of success in recent years and are one of the bigger-market teams in Major League Baseball, they often get linked to top free agents.

Frankly, a lot of that is because agents can throw the Phillies’ name out there to gain leverage in negotiations.

One player linked to the Phillies is Kyle Tucker.

However, according to the latest from Theo DeRosa of MLB.com, a play for Tucker is considered very unlikely unless the team fails to retain Kyle Schwarber.

“Dealing for Harrison Bader at the 2025 Trade Deadline certainly bolstered the Phillies’ outfield, but Bader is also a free agent, leaving Philadelphia with some improvements to make…

“A position group that seemed like a strength a few years ago is now a weakness. Schwarber is a full-time DH, Bryce Harper’s outfielder’s mitt is gathering dust and Nick Castellanos is expected to be traded or released this offseason. Behind Brandon Marsh, the Phillies don’t currently have much in the way of MLB-caliber starting outfielders for 2026… A move for this offseason’s top available player, Kyle Tucker, doesn’t look likely (unless the Phillies fail to retain Schwarber), and the overall outfield market isn’t the strongest, but there are productive players to be found,” he wrote.

As crazy as it might sound, if the base is purely offensive numbers, Schwarber is probably better than Tucker right now.

Tucker is younger and obviously much better defensively, but he has never had an offensive season like Schwarber just did.