Five former Indiana baseball players sit on Major League Baseball Opening Day rosters, set to start Thursday.
Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber will make his season debut with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played for Indiana from 2012-14.
Schwarber is entering his 12th season in the MLB. Last year, he hit 56 home runs and 132 RBIs and posted a .928 on base plus slugging percentage across 162 regular-season games.
The 33-year-old Schwarber signed a five-year, $150 million contract to return to Philadelphia after testing the waters in free agency in the offseason. He’s been a player on the Phillies since the 2022 season.
Schwarber previously played six and a half years for the Chicago Cubs before signing with the Washington Nationals in 2021. He was traded to the Boston Red Sox in July 2021 where he finished the season.
Schwarber was a member of Team USA during the World Baseball Classic where he batted .320 in seven games and hit an 427-foot home run against Team Great Britain on March 7.
Left-handed pitchers Tim Herrin and Kyle Hart also made Opening Day rosters. Herrin is a member of the Cleveland Guardians, while Hart plays for the San Diego Padres.
Hart played in Bloomington from 2012-16 before he was drafted by the Boston Red Sox but appeared for only one season in 2020. The southpaw played in the minor leagues from 2016-2020 and 2021-23. He spent the 2024 season in the Korean Baseball Organization.
Hart signed a major league deal with the Padres last year. He appeared in 20 games, making six starts as an opener. He threw 43 innings last season, recording a 5.86 ERA.
Herrin donned the Cream and Crimson jersey for three seasons before being selected in the 29th round of the 2018 MLB Draft by Cleveland.
Herrin is entering his fourth full season in the major leagues with the Guardians. The Terre Haute native pitched a 5-4 record last year in 54 appearances. He held a 4.85 ERA in 42.2 innings pitched.
Right-handed pitchers McCade Brown and Craig Yoho are on the Colorado Rockies and Milwaukee Brewers rosters, respectively. However, both pitchers will begin the year on the 15-day injured list, Brown with a right-shoulder injury and Yoho with a calf injury.
Follow reporters Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) and Will Kwiatkowski (@WKwiatkowski_15 and wdkwiatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana baseball season.
