It has been a hot minute, but you may recall the failed 2017 pursuit of Shohei Ohtani by the Cincinnati Reds and then GM Dick Williams.

It was public. There were presentations. When, in early December of that year, the Reds found out they hadn’t made the final cut for the superstar from Japan, Williams was frustrated. “We’ve put a lot of thought and effort into this project,” he told MLB.com, lamenting that it simply wasn’t enough given the other options Shohei had at his disposal.

It took another two seasons of flailing at the big league level, but the Reds eventally got around to diving into free agency like a big-kid club. They signed Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas to dueling $64 million contracts, and even splurged to bring in Shogo Akiyama and Wade Miley, too. Big-ish names, decent money (and a record for the club in free agency), yet the wins simply didn’t stack up enough during the COVID pandemic – and almost all of those deals ended up underwater in a blink.

To date, the Reds have yet to dip back into the depths of free agency, instead going through this iteration of their perpetual rebuild by compiling prospects via trade, drafting, and developing – a slow-play that’s been arduous as we enter the fourth legitimate year of its progression. That, though, changed a bit this winter with the presence of Middletown native Kyle Schwarber on the free agent market, and the Reds – despite trying to slow-play their own interest in him – let it be known in the court of public opinion that he was very much of interest.

Except, of course, that didn’t work out. Schwarber agreed to return to the Philadelphia Phillies on a 5-year, $150 million deal on Tuesday, and all the news in the wake of that announcement has put egg squarely in the face of the Castellini ownership group, Nick Krall, and the entire front office.

Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Reds offer came in somewhere in the range of 5-years and $125 million, a far cry from what Philly went to in landing him. And while the lack of money may well be both the obvious scapegoat with this frugal ownership group, it’s this tidbit from Rosenthal that sent the egg face-flying:

Unlike the Orioles, the Reds are not expected to pursue other expensive free agents. Their offer to Schwarber, a native of Middletown, Ohio, about 35 miles north of Cincinnati, was tied to their belief that his addition would help drive ticket sales.

In other words, the Reds aren’t going to pivot from Schwarber to Pete Alonso or Alex Bregman or Cody Bellinger at the top end of the market for ‘hitters who can actually hit.’ Instead, they simply chased Schwarber because he was the ‘hometown’ guy – the one hometown guy on the market – and still managed to not get him signed.

The team drilled down its entire offseason philosophy into sign the guy from around here because it will help us make more money and then completely failed to even make that a reality. This wasn’t them prioritizing which bats out there could help them most for their buck and then getting the best one they could, this was them highlighting one guy (and one guy only) simply because they thought it gave them a chance at more enrichment and still being unable to pull off the deal.

It makes a lot more sense now that the front office and Terry Francona were downplaying their pursuit of Schwarber, as I wouldn’t want those motives (and that lackluster sales pitch) getting out to the public, either. This is a far cry from Williams’ pitch to Ohtani (and the fans) of how freaking cool would this be and, instead, is simply a stark reminder that the only time the Reds will even try to spend money it a) won’t be enough anyway and b) will only come with enough caveats to sink the Titanic.

Even if this was an attempt in appeasing local fans with the message of well, we tried, it now looks so half-hearted that it’s hard to give them credit for it, even if they long ago wrote off their chances and have been hard at work at cheap, fringe-y deals elsewhere. Though given what C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic relays about their activities during the most recent holiday week, I’m not even sure I can grant them that kind of recognition.

The Reds went to Schwarber with the ‘c’mon man, help us out’ approach, and it failed spectacularly. That’s simply who they are when it comes to trying to act like a serious franchise anymore.