Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber has earned himself quite the nice payday over the last four seasons.
In his time with the Philadelphia Phillies, Schwarber slugged 187 of his 340 career home runs, good for an average of 46.7 homers per year. Now, a move to an even more friendly hitters' ballpark may be on the horizon for the 11-year veteran.
According to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, the Cincinnati Reds are heavily interested in Schwarber. Rosenthal also reported that the interest is mutual, and Schwarber is interested in the idea of returning to his home state of Ohio. Another factoid of note is that Rosenthal did report that the Phillies will likely be able to offer more money to Schwarber than the Reds will be able to.
As we noted above, Cincinnati has long been known as one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in MLB. Just last season, it ranked No. 4 in Park Factor according to Statcast, three spots ahead of Citizens Bank Ballpark.
Statcast also shows that had Schwarber played all his games in Cincinnati last season, he would have mashed 58 home runs, two more than his actual season total of 56 with Philadelphia. When diving into it, Schwarber returning to the NL Central, a division he's mashed 89 home runs against in his career, makes a ton of sense.
It'll be intriguing to see if the Reds can come up with the money to outbid the Phillies and keep Schwarber in his home state for what may be the final contract of his career.
More MLB: Reds' alternate plans to signing Kyle Schwarber revealed by MLB insider