{"id":324212,"date":"2025-12-03T04:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T04:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324212\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T04:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T04:21:07","slug":"latest-on-kyle-schwarbers-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324212\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Kyle Schwarber’s Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reds remain in the market for\u00a0Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, writes Mark Sheldon of MLB.com<\/a>. That has been a frequent connection because Schwarber grew up a Reds fan not far outside Cincinnati. The club also needs to add an impact bat, though it remains to be seen if they\u2019re willing to make a competitive offer.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati finished 14th in MLB in scoring despite playing in one of the sport\u2019s most hitter-friendly venues. They had a .245\/.315\/.391 slash line and finished 21st in home runs. Elly De La Cruz<\/a> was the team leader with 22 homers, and their only two hitters who slugged at least .450 in more than 100 plate appearances (Miguel Andujar<\/a> and\u00a0Austin Hays<\/a>) are free agents. The Reds need offense generally and would benefit from a power bat in particular.<\/p>\n

Schwarber is the best slugger available. He\u2019s coming off a 56-homer season in which he hit .240\/.365\/.563 while starting all 162 games for the Phillies. He hasn\u2019t hit fewer than 30 homers in a full season since 2018 and is tied with\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a> for second in MLB (behind\u00a0Aaron Judge<\/a>) in longballs over the last four years.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati doesn\u2019t have anyone locked into the everyday DH role. They\u2019ll probably want to give 22-year-old Sal Stewart<\/a> more time to see if he can be a serviceable defender at first base.\u00a0Spencer Steer<\/a> could play left field more frequently or simply be shopped in trade if the Reds were to add Schwarber (or Pete Alonso<\/a>, a long speculated potential fit).<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s a clear fit from a roster perspective, it\u2019d require an unusually bold commitment from ownership. Schwarber is expected to handily surpass a $100MM guarantee and could land $30MM+ annually. The Reds have given out two nine-figure contracts in franchise history: $225MM for\u00a0Joey Votto<\/a> and $105MM to\u00a0Homer Bailey<\/a>. Those were both extensions. Their largest free agent deals were the matching four-year, $64MM terms to\u00a0Nick Castellanos<\/a> and\u00a0Mike Moustakas<\/a>. Those $16MM average annual values were the most for any multi-year free agent signing. Schwarber might require twice that amount.<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Nick Krall said last month that the Reds expect to run a similar payroll<\/a> to this past season\u2019s level. They opened \u201925 with a payroll around $116MM. They have around $40MM in guaranteed contracts but have a hefty arbitration class that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects to cost roughly $45MM.<\/p>\n

Filling out the roster with players making the league minimum would leave them with roughly $20-25MM to spend. They\u2019ll certainly add a bat of some significance, but a Schwarber signing might require ownership to push the budget beyond where they seemingly prefer to set it. The other option would be to shed money from the arbitration class by shopping one or more of\u00a0Brady Singer<\/a> ($11.9MM projection),\u00a0Tyler Stephenson<\/a> ($6.4MM), Gavin Lux<\/a> ($5MM), TJ Friedl<\/a> ($4.9MM), Nick Lodolo<\/a> ($4.3MM) or Steer ($4.5MM).<\/p>\n

In a less obvious connection, Jon Morosi of The MLB Network<\/a> relayed this morning that the Giants have also been in contact with Schwarber\u2019s camp. That\u2019s a much more difficult fit from a roster perspective. San Francisco has\u00a0Rafael Devers<\/a> under contract through 2033. Even if they\u2019re confident he\u2019ll be a capable everyday first baseman, they\u2019d need at-bats at designated hitter for top first base prospect\u00a0Bryce Eldridge<\/a>. There\u2019s an argument for the Giants to bring in a short-term first baseman\/DH to give the 21-year-old Eldridge more time in Triple-A, but that wouldn\u2019t apply to a four- or five-year contract for Schwarber.<\/p>\n

The Giants presumably wouldn\u2019t have any interest in using Schwarber as an everyday outfielder. There\u2019d only be any kind of fit if they trade Eldridge for a starter. They\u2019ve already downplayed their desire to make a nine-figure commitment to a starter despite calling pitching their top priority. It\u2019d be a huge surprise if they committed that kind of money to a DH.<\/p>\n

Schwarber rejected a qualifying offer, so whichever team signs him will forfeit draft compensation. Philadelphia has made no secret of their desire to bring him back. The Orioles and Red Sox are both in the market for an impact bat and have shown interest, while the Pirates have been mentioned as an extreme long shot after making an unsuccessful attempt to lure Josh Naylor<\/a> away from Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reds remain in the market for\u00a0Kyle Schwarber, writes Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. That has been a frequent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5152,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-324212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-kyle-schwarber","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}