ORLANDO, Fla. — The Cincinnati Reds know that they can’t make the highest monetary offer to free-agent Kyle Schwarber, but that’s not to say that there aren’t things they can offer that have value beyond money, like the opportunity to play for your hometown team or under a legendary manager.

Sitting in his club’s suite at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings, Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall simply pointed to his left when asked what that might be. Next to him was manager Terry Francona, a man who has won two World Series championships and will almost certainly be enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

“Oh boy,” said the famously self-deprecating Francona, “who can we go after next?”

Francona is a draw, so much so, that earlier this offseason, veteran Justin Turner said he’d love to play under the skipper. But that’s not the entire sales pitch to Schwarber, who grew up as a Reds fan in nearby Middletown.

“Look, I think Cincinnati’s a great place and it’s a great fan base,” Krall said. “You start with Opening Day and we’ve got a really good, young nucleus of players. We’ve got a really good pitching staff. We made the playoffs last year, (and are) hoping to build off of that.”

Schwarber is exactly what the Reds need — a middle-of-the-order bat to slide in behind shortstop Elly De La Cruz. It’s easy to imagine how careful a pitcher would have to be to not let his focus slip while dealing with Schwarber at the plate and De La Cruz on the bases.

De La Cruz batted third in the team’s order for 148 of the team’s 162 games. Austin Hays started the most games in the cleanup spot (82), but of the seven other players Francona put in that spot, none started more than Gavin Lux’s 21 games. In all, Reds cleanup hitters hit 22 home runs in 2025, eighth fewest in baseball.

Last season, Schwarber hit his 22nd home run in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 69th game of the year. He doubled that figure by the 126th game en route to an NL-best 56 homers on the year. George Foster is the only Red to ever hit 50 home runs in a season with 52 in 1977.

Heading into 2026, the Reds’ budget, Krall has said, is approximately the same as it was last season, somewhere in the range of $115 to $120 million. Those numbers would give the Reds roughly $20 million to spend this offseason, with last week’s re-signing of closer Emilio Pagán taking up half of that already.

The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected Schwarber to sign a contract of five years for $145 million, well beyond what the Reds would appear to have available.

“Our ownership group puts everything back into the team every year, and they try to figure out how to break even every year, and that’s how we budget,” Krall said.

Last week, Pagán said he told his agent at the start of free agency that he wanted to return to the Reds, even if it wasn’t the highest offer. Krall said a year ago, Hays targeted the Reds, as had Nick Martinez before him.

The Reds have tailored their pitch to Schwarber, just as they have to every other free-agent target, but his hometown ties are here, an advantage no other team can offer. The Reds want Schwarber, that much is known, even if what he wants has yet to be revealed.

Francona said he doesn’t know Schwarber well, but he knows enough to say Schwarber would help the Reds.

“I’m probably not on an island when I say he’s a really good player and he’s a really good kid and he’s got a great reputation,” Francona said. “Other than that, I’d like to leave it to him to speak about whatever he wants to because I think that’s the most respectful way to handle it.”