Ohio’s governor is hoping one of baseball’s top free agents will come home for the 2026 season.After spending the last four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Middletown native Kyle Schwarber is officially a free agent and is not expected to re-sign in the city of Brotherly Love, where he slugged 56 home runs and drove in 132 runs—both of which were career highs—in 162 games for the NL East champions.Now, he’s on the hunt for a new home, and a return home might just be what the doctor ordered.ESPN’s MLB insider Jeff Passan called Schwarber the “perfect transaction,” for the Cincinnati Reds this offseason, saying the Reds have “a glaring need for offense” and says the team should “throw caution to the wind” to try to sign the best free agent hitter, who also just happens to hail from 38 miles away.In response to Passan’s analysis, Gov. Mike DeWine put his full endorsement behind the move, saying he’d like to see Schwarber come home. “The @reds signing @kschwarb12 would add big power to the lineup and bring a Middletown native back to Southwest Ohio!” the governor said in a post on social media.Cincinnati’s total payroll last year came in around $119 million, the eighth-lowest in baseball. Earlier this month at the GM meetings, general manager Nick Krall said the 2026 payroll “will be about the same” as in 2025. Before the Hot Stove truly ignites, the Reds’ have about $80 million to play with, if Krall’s assertion is to be correct.In trying to predict what some of the biggest free agent stars will make this offseason, The Athletic’s Tim Britton puts his prediction for the Indiana University product at five years, $145 million. At that cost, he’d earn around $29 million a year.If that is what Schwarber nets, and if the Reds are the one to pay it, the contract would far and away be the biggest deal to any current Reds player, including Hunter Greene, who is set to make $15.3 million in 2027 and $16.3 million in 2028 as part of his six-year contract extension that he signed in 2023. That deal was worth a total of $53 million.Along with a price tag that would lead the team would come production that would do the same: Schwarber hit more home runs and drove in more runs than any individual Reds player did last year. He also posted a .240 batting average, which would have been the fifth best of any player with 400 or more plate appearances, and logged a .563 slugging percentage, which would have paced the team.The Reds made the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013 this year, going 83-79 and clinching the final NL Wild Card berth, thanks in part to an epic second-half collapse by the New York Mets.
CINCINNATI —
Ohio’s governor is hoping one of baseball’s top free agents will come home for the 2026 season.
After spending the last four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Middletown native Kyle Schwarber is officially a free agent and is not expected to re-sign in the city of Brotherly Love, where he slugged 56 home runs and drove in 132 runs—both of which were career highs—in 162 games for the NL East champions.
Now, he’s on the hunt for a new home, and a return home might just be what the doctor ordered.
ESPN’s MLB insider Jeff Passan called Schwarber the “perfect transaction,” for the Cincinnati Reds this offseason, saying the Reds have “a glaring need for offense” and says the team should “throw caution to the wind” to try to sign the best free agent hitter, who also just happens to hail from 38 miles away.
In response to Passan’s analysis, Gov. Mike DeWine put his full endorsement behind the move, saying he’d like to see Schwarber come home.
“The @reds signing @kschwarb12 would add big power to the lineup and bring a Middletown native back to Southwest Ohio!” the governor said in a post on social media.
Cincinnati’s total payroll last year came in around $119 million, the eighth-lowest in baseball. Earlier this month at the GM meetings, general manager Nick Krall said the 2026 payroll “will be about the same” as in 2025. Before the Hot Stove truly ignites, the Reds’ have about $80 million to play with, if Krall’s assertion is to be correct.
In trying to predict what some of the biggest free agent stars will make this offseason, The Athletic’s Tim Britton puts his prediction for the Indiana University product at five years, $145 million. At that cost, he’d earn around $29 million a year.
If that is what Schwarber nets, and if the Reds are the one to pay it, the contract would far and away be the biggest deal to any current Reds player, including Hunter Greene, who is set to make $15.3 million in 2027 and $16.3 million in 2028 as part of his six-year contract extension that he signed in 2023. That deal was worth a total of $53 million.
Along with a price tag that would lead the team would come production that would do the same: Schwarber hit more home runs and drove in more runs than any individual Reds player did last year.
He also posted a .240 batting average, which would have been the fifth best of any player with 400 or more plate appearances, and logged a .563 slugging percentage, which would have paced the team.
The Reds made the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013 this year, going 83-79 and clinching the final NL Wild Card berth, thanks in part to an epic second-half collapse by the New York Mets.