Jeff Passan hasn’t broken any big news yet this offseason, but that’s probably only due to the fact that not a whole lot has happened yet unless we count the gambling scandal in Cleveland. But earlier today he did publish an article over at ESPN that looked at each team’s perfect transaction for the 2026 season. For the Cincinnati Reds he says that signing Kyle Schwarber would be their perfect transaction.
Like everyone else alive, Passan understands that the Reds offense just isn’t that good and that adding a real threat to the lineup could potentially change things for a team that is currently built on pitching. He notes the local connection with Schwarber, too.
In 2025 with the Philadelphia Phillies he hit 56 home runs to go along with 23 doubles and two triples. He his .240/.365/.563 with 108 walks, he scored 111 runs, and he drove in 132. His 150 OPS+ hasn’t been reached by a Cincinnati Reds hitter since Joey Votto’s 163 mark in 2017. No one has really been close since then.
Schwarber played in all 162 games in 2025. He’s played in at least 150 games in each of the last four seasons. And he’s hit 46 or more home runs in three of those four years. He only hit 38 of them in 2024. Schwarber struggles to make contact, leading the league in strikeouts in both 2022 and 2023. In each of the last two years he’s had 197 strikeouts. But when he makes contact he makes it count in a big, big way. And he supplements that with a whole lot of walks, too.
Of course with Cincinnati it’s going to come down to money. And that’s where Passan, like most of you, hit the pause button.
Even if Cincinnati has indicated it doesn’t plan to increase payroll much over $116 million this year, there is room for a big swing. And the fact that the Reds have a glaring need for offense and that the best available free agent hitter grew up on the outskirts of the city is screaming for the Reds to throw caution to the wind and supercharge a team with plenty of potential to contend. Will they? Probably not. It’s the Reds. But it’s too obvious not to try to speak it into existence.
We still don’t know exactly how much wiggle room the Reds are going to have to work with in free agency. While arbitration numbers are going to come into play, the total difference there is likely only a few million in one direction or the other. Non-tenders may come into play, too, and that could be a bit more significant. Or maybe it won’t matter at all.
Like Passan says, it’s the Reds. So it’s probably not going to happen. It’s even tough to dream on as being realistic given that we don’t know exactly how much money the team’s obligations are for the 2026 roster and how much they have to work with even though we have been told that the payroll isn’t going to go up from where it was in 2025.