Guardians could benefit in big way from latest Kyle Schwarber-Reds rumors

Although there are plenty of impact players available in MLB free agency this year, Kyle Schwarber arguably stands out as one of the top offensive options, and is a fit for almost every team in baseball, the Guardians included. 

But that doesn’t mean that every team is interested in him. Even if he’d be a perfect fit for the Guardians, it’s hard to imagine him spending the next part of his career at Progressive Field due to how much he’ll cost. 

But, according to a new report from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the Cincinnati Reds are “serious” Schwarber, which makes it seem like there’s a chance the 32-year-old could still end up playing in his hometown state of Ohio.

Schwarber ending up in Cincinnati would be a huge win for the Reds, who have a budding (if not flawed) star in Elly De La Cruz alongside one of the best managers in baseball in Terry Francona. 

But it looks like there’s a chance it could help the Guardians too. A bit lower in Rosenthal’s story, he writes that the Reds are planning on keeping their payroll the same, which would make it tough for them to afford Schwarber, who is projected to get a contract between $130 and $150 million. 

To combat that, Rosenthal wrote the Reds could consider trading Gavin Lux, who would stand out as an immediate trade target for the Guardians. 

Gavin Lux could be a fit on the Guardians’ roster 

Even though Lux’s career hasn’t exactly gone as expected after the Dodgers’ drafted him in the first round of the 2016 MLB Draft (in 2020 he was the reason the Dodgers didn’t trade for Francisco Lindor), he’s still a valuable player who could help add some pop to Cleveland’s lineup. 

Last season Lux hit .269 across 140 games with five home runs, 53 RBI and a career-high 28 doubles. He had a chase rate of just 19.5% and a sweet-spot rate of 38.1%, so he’d easily fit into Cleveland’s contact-heavy lineup. 

But he also has some serious flaws. He generated almost no power (he had a barrel rate of just 3.6%), had some unsightly defensive metrics (-9 Outs Above Average) and hit just .179 against left-handed pitching, which is an obvious area of need for the Guardians. 

The good news is that he’s projected to earn just $5 million in his final turn through arbitration, so he wouldn’t break the bank. But adding him to the roster wouldn’t be as easy of a fit as someone like Harrison Bader. 

Lux really only makes sense as a platoon option at second base, which means he’d be a bit redundant on the Guardians’ current roster since they already have a soft-hitting second base in Brayan Rocchio.

But if the Guardians trade away Rocchio (or shift him to shortstop and trade Gabriel Arias), then suddenly things make a bit more sense since he could be a platoon/stopgap option until Travis Bazzana gets called up. 

While Lux being available being the main Guardians-related takeaway of a story about Kyle Schwarber’s availability is a bit depressing, that’s how the Guardians’ front office operates. And, to be fair to them, it’s a process that’s resulted in two straight division titles.