The Reds had a longstanding interest in Zack Wheeler as both a trade target and then when the righty entered free agency in the 2019-20 offseason. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer recently revisited that free agent pursuit, which ended when the Phillies signed Wheeler to a five-year, $118MM contract. According to Nightengale, the Reds were also willing to spend beyond $100MM to sign Wheeler, but they may have been undone by geography more than just dollars. Wheeler prioritized staying on the East Coast and closer to his wife’s home state of New Jersey, giving the Phils the edge over both the Reds and the White Sox (who reportedly offered more than $118MM).
Needless to say, signing Wheeler would’ve changed the entire trajectory of recent Reds history, not to mention the Phillies’ last three seasons and their current berth in the 2022 World Series. As Nightengale notes, the Reds went on to sign Nick Castellanos (for $64MM over four years) and Shogo Akiyama ($21MM over three years) after Wheeler left the market, and it isn’t known if either of those deals could’ve or would’ve still happened if Cincinnati had made its big investment in Wheeler’s contract.
More from around the baseball world…
- Christopher Morel had a solid rookie season, hitting .235/.308/.433 with 16 home runs over 425 plate appearances for the Cubs. Beyond his contributions at the plate, Morel also started games as a second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, center fielder, and left fielder. ‘There’s not many guys in the big leagues that can do what he does, the consistency he’s shown at times in each position,’’ Cubs assistant coach Jonathan Mota told Maddie Lee of the Chicago-Sun Times. A super-utility role would make Morel a valuable commodity on the roster, and both Morel and the Cubs seem committed to continuing his prep work at multiple positions going forward.
- Tampa-area businessman Darryl Shaw recently bought 25 acres of waterfront land in the Ybor City neighborhood, and as John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times explains, Shaw tried in the past to work with the Rays in other ventures in the Ybor area. Shaw’s new land purchase might therefore revive the idea of a new Rays ballpark in downtown Tampa, though Romano notes that this could be a long shot for a variety of reasons, including a lack of committed civic funding and the Rays’ increased interest in a new park (and accompanying “baseball village” infrastructure) built on the grounds of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Any number of proposals involving Tampa, St. Pete, and even Montreal have been floated over the years as the Rays look for a new home, and it remains to be seen if any answer can be found before the club’s lease at the Trop expires after the 2027 season. Rays team president Matt Silverman said that “city and county officials on both sides of the bay seem to appreciate the value of baseball and are focused on finding a solution. The discussions are going on simultaneously in a parallel, non-competitive, non-adversarial way. Everyone understands time is of the essence.”
Reds long term strategy is like that investment commercial….”what’s your future payroll limitations?”
A gillion. We just throw money at it.
There is no way Reds were in on Wheeler
At $110 million. Fake news. Just front office trying to appease the fan base.
I really wish the term “fake news” would go away. Especially when the people using the term offer ZERO evidence that it is wrong in any way other than “I don’t think so.”
I really wish there wasn’t fake news. But if you think the media is honest these days, well God bless you.
@hiflew – God bless you twice. Now take a seat and think about it.
I‘d bet my entire baseball card collection that that guy is of the opinion that Orange Man Bad because his TV told him so.
No, that was the orange man himself.
Hopefully a nice orange, stripped jail suit will be passed onto him – sooner rather than later. And his cronies.
Definitely arrogant and egotistical, like some of the best ball players in the show over the years. Those of whom get slammed constantly by the media. Rightfully so at times but results certainly matter….I see it like this now. I’d gladly take a sub 3 era starter with those character traits over one with a record high era that gives up bomb’s, can’t field his position, is looking to get into brawls, is a flaky teammate at best, and doesn’t know what time the game is. Just a thought.
He isn’t saying fake news doesn’t exist. He’s simply stating he dislikes the trend…
The trend of people using that specific term these days often just say something is “fake news,” yet they only state it is fake because they don’t agree with it, without providing any facts as to why said news is fake…
I happen to completely agree, just because you don’t think or feel like something happened doesn’t mean it is fake news..
Then again, why do the work to find out the real story when just calling it fake fits your narrative anyways!?!
The “Morel” of the story is to keep partisan politics out of baseball chat.
Don’t need a TV for that opinion. Lordy.
You can always find some pseudo news source to support your opinion.
Nope
If justice is what you seek, then Joe and Hunter ought to be his cellmates.
Oh great, Politics! Isn’t it awesome how the other side is just full of terrible people, but our side is so perfect.
Geez guys give it a rest, and talk baseball.
For real.
Sorry if you don’t like the term “fake news.” I’ll just say what it is…Reds front office lying then. Do you understand that? And if you think Trump is the problem, let’s go Brandon.
Yes, I have no problem understanding BS. I’ve been doing it all my life. But you still have no evidence other than “I don’t think so.”
I said nothing about politics. I was talking about you, not someone else. But I guess deflection is common for people nowadays. Instead of defending their own actions when challenged, some people prefer pointing our the faults of others instead.
Have a nice night.
Fake news is a fact of life. How anyone can argue that I do not understand. It’s like sports, folks will defend their teams no matter what but sometimes your team is up to no good and simply suck. The difference is in sports they will criticize their team and take others constructive criticism as well. In politics for whatever reason they can’t deal with it because the hate of the other team is so deep. I get it but that is a problem that has been created by the powers that be…. Anyway, I agree the Reds were in no way seriously in on Wheeler. If so they are worse off than it looks.
I apologize for saying fake news. I assumed that was commonplace these days for saying someone was lying. Not political at all. Anyone who thinks the Reds were in on Zach Wheeler obviously haven’t been paying attention to the Reds front office lately. They ditched a gold glove catcher over $5 million. And then had a half a dozen guys who weren’t major leaguers catch this season.
I apologize as well. I have had probably way too many political conversations that devolve quickly and I tend to make the assumption that will happen anytime.
As far as the Reds go, I believe the report because this is talking about 2 years ago when the Reds were still spending. The story says that this interest happened before the Reds spent nearly $100 million on Castellanos and Akiyama. I can believe that those two were fall back options after Wheeler signed elsewhere. If it had been referring to last offseason, I would agree with you since there is evidence that the Reds weren’t spending anything.
There were multiple reports they were in on him at that time. That’s the off-season before the pandemic when they ramped up payroll. They spent equivalent in contracts that off-season to Castellanos, Moustakas and Akiyama. That said, if they had signed him, he would’ve been part of this years fire sale.
Buzz:’Let’s go Brandon”.
Also Buzz: “Not political at all.”
Why don’t you leave that garbage for fox. This thread is about baseball. Or is there some big conspiracy here as well?!?
That is exactly correct, unless the article is implying that signing Wheeler would have prevented Covid to spread in the US and the cancellation of 102 baseball games, it wouldn’t have matter one iota.
I feel semi bad for Reds fans but I hate that they blame ownership for being “cheap”. Reds ownership did exactly what baseball wants small markets to do, which is use the profit sharing “competitive balance” money on their team, not as a profit source. Unfortunately, as soon as the Reds spent their money, in 2020, profit sharing dried up. Instead of collecting several 10s of millions of dollars they got next to nothing while losing the smaller revenue they had. Which forced them deep into the red and they had to work their way out of it
They are also in a small media market. Much less than even Cleveland, Raleigh/Durham, Portland, Seattle, Charlotte and others.
Those media market numbers atre skewed though. Dayton absolutely carries Cincinnati media but is considered a separate market, despite being 45 minutes away
The Reds may well have had interest in Wheeler. They did sign Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, and Wade Miley. They traded for Sonny Gray and Trevor Bauer. The Reds have spent money its just didn’t translate to on-field success
I just want to know who decided to spend money on Mike Minor and if he still has a job.
That was an idiot owner who panicked when fans got incensed when they dumped so much payroll so he instructed Krall to add $ somehow. Krall made a dumb deal but Castellini ordered the move
Anyway, before all y’all got triggered…..
Wheeler chose Mets over reds. Once that happened, reds turned their sites on another 1/2 dozen free agents that also shunned them. And since no one would pay castellanos at that time – he settled on cincy.
So no not fake news. U could argue that it’s not news at all though
Why in the world would the Rays want to build ANYTHING on current Trop property, especially a “ballpark village”? You can’t get to that area…it’s a pain in the ass for any TB residents from anywhere other than St.Pete. Build the park/village east near intersection of 4/75 and we will come.
I was hoping someone would bring this up in the comments. Not being from the area, I thought that the biggest issue for them not drawing fans is that the stadium is a pain in the ass to get to.
Being a giant concrete igloo can’t possibly help matters either
Concrete Igloo? Nice, but I actually prefer the term tin can warehouse. Either term…..it’s ugly and one of the main reasons why so many stay away. It’s never been a destination ballpark. I used to drive well over an hour to go to PNC when I lived there. Of course the teams were worth driving for.
I don’t disagree, but I think the idea is that with the revenue from the “ballpark village” the team would be able to offset some of the lost revenue from lower attendance.
MLB franchises with low attendance are compensated by the league. No worries, none of the billionaire owners are losing anything in their welfare challenge cup leagues.
Thought attendance issues had more to do with the franchise being located in Florida. No original, or at least small, hometown fan base. Most folks are from some where else. Same issue with Marlins. Only difference is they do have a modern park but for the most part, year in and out, they find themselves at the bottom of MLB home attendance statistics too.
Excuse me…..did I see you say that the Trop is a modern ballpark? Really? The attendance issues there have more to do with where it’s located than any fan base issue. The Lightning draw very well because they’re more centrally located and there’s always a contingent of NE and Canadian fans present when they’re at home.
Ok….the Marlins. Completely different fanbase in South Florida than the more centrally located Rays. The issue there is similar to the current Rays park. Location. No studies of demographics done it appears.
Agree that it is a “location” issue. MLB did a “swing and a miss” when they decided to expand in to Florida. Local fan base with allegiance to area(s) is not big enough. Too many transplants that either don’t follow baseball or have an allegiance to the team from their hometown.
If that is the case why doesn’t the thunder or bucs have the same issue in Tampa?
I think one issue is no one wants to watch games in Flordia in a dome, or in a dome in general.
Second issue is baseball is terrible at marketing and the Rays have failed at marketing themselves. Baseball as a whole is driven by nostalgia, you don’t see many baseball players promoting products outside of the local area, baseball does a terrible job of marketing super stars (which is why so many stars gravitate to bigger cities to market themselves). However, if the Rays ownership did what the Ricketts family is doing, what the Cardinals did which is make the surrounding area appealing for shopping, dinning etc they would do a lot better.
The location issue has to do with having a ballpark located in a bad area for a ballpark.
The Nashville sounds draw extremely well for a minor league team, why? Because you exit the ballpark and walk to a ton of trendy restaurants and bars.
The city of Tampa/St. Pete is purposing a new site, modern facility for the Rays in an upcoming development site, luxury condos, restaurants and shopping… that will drive up attendance if it comes to fruition… it will closely resemble where the Nationals play where you can walk across the street before or after the game and enjoy the nightlife… they also have public transportation close to the stadium.
Tampa/St Pete is the 13th largest media market. Even larger if they move to Tampa which brings in Orlando.
If the Rays only played 8 home games like the Bucs, they’d sell out every game – even in that terrible stadium.
I can assure you as a resident of Tampa that we’d rather watch baseball in an air conditioned dome than get rained on every evening in the summer or deal with blistering heat and high humidity.
Brings in the entire I4 area including Orlando.
Pretty obvious owners no longer care about in-game attendance, so what difference does it make where they build it? Most of their revenues come from tv packages.
The interstate literally has an off ramp leading towards the stadium.
Anyone coming from Tampa can just get on the Howard Franklin and follow the signs.
The Trop is far my convenient to find and closer to an off-ramp than Raymond James Stadium is.
I do not understand the argument that the Stadium is hard to find/get to!
I agree, location is the main problem. However, the owners aren’t going to build a ballpark unless taxpayers foot part of the bill and Tampa residents/politicians/local businesses don’t want to (I don’t blame them either). Also, there has been an issue with acquiring land in Tampa, but I think this new land proves that the bigger issue is they want someone else to subsidize building the new ballpark.
The Reds-Wheeler story kinda stale isn’t it? Does anybody really care who teams were interested in two years ago?
I agree. Old news that doesn’t matter now.
I always wondered if the Reds ever had an interest in hometown player Kyle Schwarber. They felt they needed to put it toward Mike Moustakas. They could have used the Castellanos money and signed Schwarber.
If they want to show their fan base they want to contend next season here are a few ideas. Sign two outfield bats to go with Fraley. Sign Edwin Diaz to pitch with his brother as you reconstruct the bullpen.
Ownership needs to sell if they plan on wasting another season of Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft, India, and Stephenson. Call Elon Musk and ask him to borrow a few bucks and hand the team over to people who care. I digress.
Also hire Barry Larkin to manage the club. Lou Piniella, Billy Hatcher, and Eric Davis could also be hired.
I’d love it if they hired Larkin to manage the club simply because that would take him out of the announce booth. He is horrible at that job.
I like Larkin but an announcer he is not. Votto actually did a better job lol.
Votto did fine except for the many self-corrections. Could have been nerves, but it’s just annoying to not just let a minor error go.
Good lord. Larkin ? So the reds should go back to the well of 3 decades of losers ?
Reds fans are content w loosing forever.
Larkin a loser? Let’s see:
•World Series champion
•National League MVP
•Reds Hall of Famer
•MLB Hall of Famer
Not bad.
As a Phillies fan, I’ll gladly pay for Castellanos’ flight back to Cincinnati. The guy is a stiff at the plate and a super stiff in the field.
Tampa Bay to Montreal, Oakland to Las Vegas, problem solved.
Nope. If Montreal comes back, it needs to be as a National League team. Move the Marlins there. Tampa could have choice of Charlotte or Nashville. A’s have several options in Portland, Vegas, or San Antonio. San Jose. would be the best move for them though.
Nobody is relocating before they expand. Expansion fees are going to be over $1 billion and they wouldn’t take viable markets out of the running for expansion by letting teams move first. Renovation fees will be much less than that
How about Tampa Bay to Nashville?
I would immediately become a fan and leave the Reds in the rear view.
Rays still have 4 more years to figure out the location. The current Trop site is still option #2 (St Pete is willing). The A’s meanwhile is up in the air as to what will happen
Please get major league baseball out of Florida. Horrible teams, horrible attendance. An embarrassment. There are a several metropolitan areas on the east coast/sunbelt that can build a ballpark and put heads in seats better than the jokes in Florida.
Horrible teams? Florida has won the WS. The Rays have been to the WS twice & have made the playoffs for 4 straight seasons. The Trop is not the new shiny updated ballpark of many other MLB teams but it’s not a total dump. I am also a Tampa Bay Rays season ticket holder.
Be nice to Fljay, he is an endangered species!
Agree! Ive been to the Trop once, its honestly not as bad as people make it. Is it top 10? No, but it has more character than cookie cutters like Nats park, whatever they call the white sox park now and Cleveland. Don’t gotta sit in the heat and no bad seat really. Its like stepping back into time.
So you’re the one making all that noise!
Noothing against the orange juice, but the Tropicana is a rancid place to play baseball.
Cubs plant the Morel story? I don’t think a utility player that K’s 32% of the time and is -8 in RDRS is something to talk about.
Morel brings an energy and excitement to the game that you have to see in person. He is excited to meet players on an opposing team for the first time you can see that he appreciates the privilege of being in the show. He is a great team presence he has power and speed. Think K. Hernandez but he hasn’t injured a teammate. Best used as a super utility not a starter.
Morel is actually better than his final average showed. David Ross over used him, sometimes a rookie who is struggling needs to sit and watch a game or two. David Ross played him game after game after game after game. Morel can play but he clearly needed an occasional rest
As an outsider who has visited Tampa Bay/St Pete area quite a few times over the years, the location is horrible for the Trop. Getting across the bay is a huge issue in doing anything in the St Pete area. The majority of the area’s population is east of the bay in Tampa so makes more sense to put the stadium there than over in St. Pete. The whole transplant issue is overblown. Sure, a lot of people have moved there from other areas, but there are plenty of people there who have been there for years. A proper stadium and a good team will overcome that easily. Figure it out, do it right and the Rays could end up being dangerous.
Considering the Rays have the 5th best record in baseball the last 15 years I would say they already are dangerous
This thread went like the team has gone. Sideways. Who cares about Wheeler or TB in a Reds thread? We could only hope for real rumors with this bunch.
Who even cares about the Reds in a Reds thread?