Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers of ESPN both seemed to agree on Thursday that the Cincinnati Reds were the biggest losers at the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings. And both of them agreed on the reason why – they failed to bring in Kyle Schwarber.
Rogers noted that while Schwarber is very important to the Philadelphia Phillies (who were able to bring him back with a 5-year, $150,000,000 deal), that “his impact in Cincinnati could have been even more meaningful”. But Passan really laid it out as to why he believed the Reds were the biggest loser at the meetings:
“Free agents of Schwarber’s ilk rarely entertain the idea of going to small-market teams, but the Reds had a built-in advantage: He was from there. Considering the scarcity of such possibilities, the Reds– one big bat away from being a real threat to win the NL Central — needed to treat Schwarber’s potential arrival with urgency and embrace their inner spendthrift. They had the money to place the largest bid. They chose not to. And they missed, a true shame considering the strength of their rotation and the likelihood that similar opportunities won’t find them again anytime soon.”
There certainly could be some assumptions going on there. But it all reads pretty true. Cincinnati at least talked about the fact that they truly thought they could sign Kyle Schwarber. There are two different reports out there on exactly what it was that was offered by the Reds. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and others reported that Cincinnati offered 5-years and $125,000,000 with a chance for there to be more. The assumption there is that there were performance bonuses tied in that could have pushed the deal higher. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on Wednesday that the Reds offered to match the Orioles on a 5-year, $150,000,000 deal but that Schwarber simply wanted to remain in Philadelphia. All three could be true if the Reds offer was $125,000,000 with another $25,000,000 possibly being there with the performance incentives.
For reasons we talked about here at Redleg Nation earlier this week, the Reds front office seemed willing to actually make a big commitment to Kyle Schwarber that they don’t seem to be willing to make to anyone else. He was the perfect fit for what the team desperately needs, they seemingly thought they could get it done in a way they almost never even think about trying, and still came up short. And not only did they come up short, but it seems that because they only seemed to carve out the idea for this one and only particular player, that whatever else they are willing to do this offseason will not compare, improve the team nearly as much, and be a bitter pill to swallow for the fans of the team.
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