[Rosenthal] What I’m hearing about the Reds’ interest in Kyle Schwarber and more MLB offseason notes [Paywall]

13 comments

  1. > Stick Schwarber in that lineup as the designated hitter, and the entire group might take off. Over the past four seasons, only Aaron Judge has hit more home runs than Schwarber. Judge is at 210, while Schwarber is tied with Shohei Ohtani at 187.
    >
    > To the Reds, it’s all rather tantalizing. Schwarber, as much as he loves playing for the Phillies, probably is intrigued, too. But in free agency, sentiment rarely carries the day. Money matters most, and it’s difficult to foresee the Reds coming up with enough.

  4. Every sports writer I’ve seen basically has the same opinion on this: “Schwarber to the Reds would be great and makes a ton of sense, but the Reds are too cheap.”

  5. Getting a guy like Schwarber does more than just put 30+ HR into the lineup, it also ensures players around him see better pitches. Guys like Elly or even Friedl could see an uptick in their hitting production.

    Now that puts a lot of eggs in one basket though. Should he get hurt, it’s literally our entire production core collapsing unless the other hitters around him have already established themselves by then.

    The flip side is the concept shown in Moneyball. We don’t need 30-40 HR from one guy, we need to pick up players that will equate to 30-40 more hr. If we had a team with 5 players hitting 20+ HR it would be the same effect.

    The only issue is I don’t see that available on the market (3-4 more 20+ hr hitters) at a price under what we’d pay for just Schwarber.

    That leads me to believe it’s Schawarber or bust…maybe picking up another Mostakas or Candelario hopeful player…we could cross our fingers too that McClain snaps back and one or two other players have breakout seasons.

    I’m trying not to get too hopeful, but hey, we also have Tito who will get the best out of players and maybe attract some mid level guys we couldn’t have before.

  7. The Reds never sign big-name contracts. We develop young talent that we find through scouting and then farm them off to big market teams once their initial contract is up. We keep the middle-ground talent and send poor performers to the minors and use them as leverage when trading with other teams. 

    This has been our identity for the past umpteen years and I don’t see that ever changing until new ownership comes in with a different plan. 

  8. I really just wish Schwarber would sign somewhere soon so this constant clickbaiting would end.

  11. If they trade Greene and get some of his contract off of the books, we may be able to swing something.

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