The Cincinnati Reds did well to add Emilio Page back to their bullpen. This signing does not take them out of the running for Kyle Schwarber, as some may think.
Pagan will be getting $10 million each year for the next two years. It was surmised that the Reds had about $20 million to spend on free agents this offseason, but that was the median of some estimates that went as high as $25 million.
So that leaves them somewhere between $10 million and $15 million, hypothetically. That will not be enough to get Schwarber, but there are options to get to that level.
Trade away some money. The Reds could trade away Brady Singer and Gavin Lux and add somewhere between $15 million and $19 million to their budget. Singer has been projected to make anywhere from $11 million to $13 million through arbitration. Lux is projected somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. Both are in their final arbitration years. These trades would need to be for prospects, as adding any real MLB money to the payroll would defeat the purpose.
Sign Schwarber to a backloaded deal. This isn’t the most likely path to success as some players are wary of this tactic, but it could be an option.
Speaking of unlikely, the Reds’ ownership group and its constituents, numbering in the teens, could call for a re-buy-in and add money to the payroll. This is unlikely, though, as it has never happened during the current regime’s era.
It is clear that now is the time for something dramatic to help shift the Reds into a legitimate contender. All reports indicate that the only thing standing in the way of Schwarber wearing a Reds uniform next year is the contract the Reds will offer him.
This is not a scenario where the team must “mortgage the future” with some exorbitant trade package of prospects. This is only a scenario that involves money. To this point in my life of watching this team, they rarely make the investment. This would be a bad time to maintain the status quo.
Whether it is from fancy financial finagling on the part of Nick Krall or it is from an increased level of commitment from the group of people who own the Reds, the time is now to get something done.
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