The Philadelphia Phillies have a clear priority for this offseason and it could be holding up many of Major League Baseball’s upcoming winter changes.
As the team works out a potential return contract for superstar slugger Kyle Schwarber, a number of teams are holding off on their own roster moves while waiting to see where he lands.
“As the first full day of the Winter Meetings came and went, the baseball world was still waiting for the first major free-agent domino of the week to fall,” Mark Feinsand wrote for MLB.com. “In the eyes of many executives, that domino is Kyle Schwarber.”
The general sense among those executives, Feinsand added, is that Schwarber will return to the Phillies. He enjoyed a Most Valuable Player Award caliber campaign last year and the team clearly needs his bat to continue carrying its offense.
But other teams are surely checking in on their own chances to steal the slugger away. And one of those teams looks to be his hometown Cincinnati Reds.
“Stranger things have happened in the big, wide world of free agency, especially when a player realizes the chance to bat in the middle of his hometown team’s lineup for a nine-figure payday,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber wrote. “And if the ascendant Reds, who just made the playoffs in a full (non-COVID) season for the first time since 2013, have a prayer of signing Schwarber, those are the reasons why.”
With a Phillies decision looming and a return to Ohio as a compelling alternative, Schwarber received some praise from the Reds in the form of a four-word message from manager Terry Francona.
“He’s a team leader,” Francona said, per Lauber.
In addition to being Schwarber’s hometown team, the Reds are a good fit for the slugger on paper. After a resurgent season under Francona, they seem to be in need of some veteran leadership and additional offense to take the next step toward World Series contention next season.
Francona underscored that potential for an offensive jolt as he continued in his praise of Schwarber.
“He could fit on any team,” the manager added, according to Lauber. “I mean, he’s going to score over 100 (runs), he’s going to drive in over 100.”
In addition to the Reds and Phillies, a bat like Schwarber’s would fit a number of other contending teams. So one manager or another’s interest in him shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But with a decision on a Phillies return still unmade, a return back to Ohio seems particularly compelling.
