![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297452229.jpg\")
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 27: Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies and teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a National League Wild Card spot after a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Citizens Bank Park on September 27, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of thing that\u2019s easy to forget now.<\/p>\n
But this past offseason, Kyle Schwarber had a decision to make. He was a free agent. He didn\u2019t have to remain with the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schwarber had other suitors. Of course he did. He\u2019s one of the most prolific power hitters of this era.<\/p>\n One of the teams that wanted him was the Cincinnati Reds<\/a>. That\u2019s the closest team to his hometown in southern Ohio. It would\u2019ve been a homecoming.<\/p>\n The Reds pulled out all the stops that a smaller-market team can. They even had Schwarber involved in a ceremonial first pitch as a road player in Cincinnati last season that also involved his dad and his childhood coach. It was the kind of move that made it very clear that they hoped to sign Schwarber.<\/p>\n In the end, though, Schwarber didn\u2019t choose the Reds. He didn\u2019t choose any other team.<\/p>\n He came back to the Phillies, for whom he hit 45 home runs to tie for the National League lead.<\/p>\n If Philadelphia\u2019s core of this era is going to get over the hump and win a World Series, it\u2019ll be because Schwarber does magnificent things in the playoffs.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, his hometown-ish Reds sit at home, having missed the playoffs by a considerable distance.<\/p>\n It\u2019s intriguing to wonder what could\u2019ve been, but it\u2019s too late now. Schwarber didn\u2019t choose Cincinnati.<\/p>\n Why Didn\u2019t Kyle Schwarber Sign With the Reds?<\/p>\n Schwarber chose the team he felt could be the most competitive around him, rather than just considering an individual contract offer.<\/p>\n A story from Spring Training in the Cincinnati Enquirer added insight into what may have stopped Schwarber from signing with the Reds.<\/p>\n This is what beat reporter Gordon Wittenmyer<\/a> wrote at the time:<\/p>\n \u201cA source with knowledge of the process said Schwarber ultimately expressed concern over the Reds making a large enough commitment to him that it would hamper the team\u2019s effort to keep a competitive roster together long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a fascinating nuance. It wasn\u2019t just about the Reds\u2019 ability to pay Schwarber what he deserved. It was about the Reds\u2019 follow-up chances of growing the rest of the roster after committing heavy resources to Schwarber.<\/p>\n In the end, there\u2019s no way to know what Cincinnati would\u2019ve done after signing Schwarber, because it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Reds Pivot Didn\u2019t Work<\/p>\n The Reds needed a power hitter, and so once they missed out on Schwarber, they signed Eugenio Suarez for a return to Cincinnati.<\/p>\n Suarez still showed off his power, but he wasn\u2019t a positive player overall, and he certainly was no Schwarber.<\/p>\n The Reds rarely have a free agent advantage like geography might\u2019ve given them in the Schwarber sweepstakes, but even that wasn\u2019t enough, and so Cincinnati goes into this new offseason having to consider what it might be able to do to improve a roster that would\u2019ve looked a whole lot better with Schwarber on it.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tBilly Heyen<\/a> Billy Heyen is a Heavy contributor with focus on the NFL and MLB. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim’s basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive work for The Sporting News, the Sandusky Register and Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men’s national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. More about Billy Heyen<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 27: Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies and teammates celebrate in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":["post-817416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-baseball","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-mlb","tag-reds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117355815158899376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}