According to reports from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Pittsburgh Pirates have made a four-year offer to free agent Kyle Schwarber that is in excess of $100 million.
The left-hitting Schwarber hit 56 homer runs last season, and while the reports state he remains unlikely to sign with Pittsburgh, it is a significant development that the Bucs are at least trying to spend some big money. Schwarber has hit a grand total of 188 dingers over the last four seasons and has 320 for his career. His 152
wRC+ ranked behind only Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto last season.
Pittsburgh’s previous biggest free agent signing that wasn’t a renewal of one of their own players was $39 million given to Francisco Liriano in 2014, and the biggest last year was $5.2 million given to Andrew Heaney, so this represents a significant step up in several ways for the Bucs.
Pittsburgh’s current payroll sits at just $64 million, which is down right now from the past several seasons, but will be going up during MLB Free Agency, even if it does not include Schwarber
The Bucs offer is estimated to be $116 million, which would be even more than the $106 million extension that they gave Bryan Reynolds in 2023.
With the outfield one of Pittsburgh’s biggest needs if not the biggest, this would certainly be a heck of a big story for the Bucs to convince Shwarber to come on over to the other side of the state of Pennsylvania.
So what say you? Do you think it is a possibility that the Pirates land the top hitter on the market? With the team looking to spend, are there any other hitters out there that you think are worth that same type of money? Let us know in the comments section.
