Reds should follow Dodgers blueprint to finally push a Kyle Schwarber deal through

Surprising as it may seem, the Cincinnati Reds are actually in the hunt for Kyle Schwarber's services. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required) recently reported that the Reds are serious about signing Schwarber, though the financials are sure to be an obstacle.

Bob Castellini and the Reds ownership group are notoriously frugal. While they've spent money in the past — $165 million during the 20219-20 offseason — signing Schwarber would require a record-breaking sum handed out to a free agent. Many predict Schwarber to sign a contract worth at least $120 million, which is nearly double what Cincinnati handed out to Mike Moustakas ($64 million) in 2019.

But this is where the Reds might need to do something they rarely do — get creative. Perhaps the Reds should take a page out of the Los Angeles Dodgers playbook and offer Schwarber a heavily-deferred contract, something they've not done since signing Ken Griffey Jr. to a nine-year, $112.5 million deal in 2000.

Reds should follow Dodgers blueprint and sign Kyle Schwarber to a heavily-deferred free agent contract

Deferred contracts are nothing new in sports. As mentioned earlier, the Reds used that same tactic 25 years ago when inking Griffey to a massive deal. Griffey received an annual payment of more than $3 million from 2009-2024 as part of the agreement.

The Dodgers, however, made a mockery of the practice in 2023 when they signed Shohei Ohtai to a 10-year, $700 million deal. Ohtani's base salary of just $2 million means that the remaining $680 million will be paid out between 2034 and 2043.

At the time, many baseball fans hated the idea of deferred money, claiming that the Dodgers were cheating the system. Since then, however, several free agents (Blake Snell, Dylan Cease, Anthony Santander, and Corbin Burnes) have done the same thing.

This practice won't be popular among every player, and the amount of money deferred can differ greatly from contract to contract. For a player like Schwarber, however, he's already made nearly $100 million in earnings throughout his Major League career and has a home just outside of Cincinnati. If he were to sign with the Reds, you'd have to think he'd immediately be able to land some endorsement deals (and make even more money) with local companies who'd love to have the hometown kid as their spokesman.

This would defeinitely be an outside-the-box move on the part of the Reds' ownership. But if they crafted the deal correctly, there's a chance that the Castellini family wouldn't even be on the hook for the deferred money. The elder Castellini is 84 years old, and there's no telling how much longer he or his family will be in charge of the Reds organization.

Adding Schwarber to the Reds 2026 lineup would immediately make Cincinnati a top contender in the NL Central division. In order to make it happen, however, Nick Krall and the Reds front office may need to present an imaginative contract offer.