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Cincinnati Must Cease and Desist with this Pathetic Attempt to Lure Kyle Schwarber
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If you’ve been paying half-attention this week, the Cincinnati Reds are rolling out the red carpet for possible-free agent Kyle Schwarber, who grew up an hour away in a place called Middletown. It’s halfway between Cincy and Dayton.
Among the sycophantic acts, a first pitch ceremony and keys to the city, summarized by Nati Sports:
(Wednesday) before the game to celebrate Kyle Schwarber’s homecoming the city of Cincinnati is giving him the keys to the city. Before yesterday’s game, the Reds also gave Kyle Schwarber the first pitch. There’s a ton of Phillies fans upset by this gesture.
Most folks are seeing this as a way to pry Kyle Schwarber back home to play for his hometown Cincinnati Reds. Kyle has said many times how much he’d love to play in his hometown for his boyhood team, and with his contract expiring after this season, there’s a great chance of this happening if he’s willing to take the ‘hometown discount’ and come back home.
There’s a “great chance” of that happening? It would have to be the biggest hometown discount in the history of hometown discounts, considering the fact that the Reds have only spent on two things in recent years – jack and shit. Pagan points out that they haven’t handed out a $200 million contract since Joey Votto, and that was back in 2014. They gave Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas four years at $64 million, which is $16 million a year. Schwarber is earning a shade under $20 million this season and the only Red earning more than $10 million AAV is Nick Martinez. They haven’t had a top-18 payroll since 2021, when they went 83-79 with rookie Jonathan India. They’re a small market team that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1995. Going from Philly to Cincinnati after clubbing all of these home runs would be like prime Brian Dawkins leaving the Eagles for the Jaguars.
We’re not there quite yet, but there are shades here of the A.J. Brown to New England thing. There was nothing in that, just mush mouth Bostonians taking a bit of Negadelphia and thinking that Mike Vrabel coming home would magically result in some offseason trade. That, of course, did not happen, like Schwarber to Cincy won’t happen. The only way it COULD happen is if the Phils win the World Series this year and he’s satisfied and goes and finishes his career back home. If that’s the case, we will gladly take the ring in exchange, and wish him well.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com