Reynolds requests trade from Pirates (source)
PITTSBURGH — The query has lingered during the last year-and-a-half: Will the Pirates commerce Bryan Reynolds? In the approaching weeks and months, the reply to that query would possibly lastly be sure.
Reynolds, a 2021 All-Star and certainly one of baseball’s greatest offensive outfielders, has requested a commerce, a supply advised MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
In response to the commerce request, the Pirates issued the next assertion, per a membership spokesperson: “While it is disappointing, this will have zero impact on our decision-making this offseason or in the future. Our goal is to improve the Pirates for 2023 and beyond. With three years until he hits free agency, Bryan remains a key member of our team. We look forward to him having a great season for the Pirates.”
The risk of buying and selling Reynolds was already anticipated to be a subject of dialog on the Winter Meetings. With his need for a commerce now out within the open, the chatter and conversations will solely additional intensify.
The Pirates, after all, don’t have to make a commerce. Reynolds, who has the Super Two designation, inked a two-year, $13.5 million contract final April that covers him by means of his first two years of arbitration. Reynolds has two extra arbitration years in 2024 and ’25, and he wouldn’t develop into a free agent till 2026. That mentioned, it’s price questioning how Reynolds would possibly reply if he stays a Pirate for the foreseeable future regardless of making his aspirations recognized.
The commerce request marks a shift in tone for Reynolds. After being named Team MVP in October, Reynolds mentioned how he regarded ahead to rising with Pittsburgh’s younger core.
“It’s enjoyable to have a constant group that you just’re taking part in with,” Reynolds mentioned. “Like I was saying with all the young guys, I think the future’s bright, so obviously I’m looking forward to next year and the years after that. I think we’re going to get better.”
Additionally, when a reporter commented that Reynolds was a centerpiece of the group’s future shifting ahead, Reynolds commented that he “wants to be part of it.”
“Any way I can be part of it, I’ll be happy,” Reynolds mentioned.
If the Pirates do, in reality, elect to commerce Reynolds, they need to be capable to command a haul of prospects and younger gamers.
Reynolds, 27, is likely one of the greatest outfielders in baseball. Through 4 seasons, he owns a profession .281/.361/.481 slash line with a 126 wRC+. Since debuting in 2019, Reynolds ranks eleventh in fWAR (12.5) and fifteenth in OPS (.842) amongst all outfielders. In ’21, Reynolds began for the National League within the All-Star Game; in ’22, he set a profession excessive in house runs with 27.
“A lot of ups and downs, but overall, [I was] relatively pleased with how it came together at the end,” Reynolds mentioned of his 2022 season.
Along together with his manufacturing, Reynolds possesses doubtlessly astronomical commerce worth as a result of he nonetheless has three years of group management remaining. Should Pittsburgh deal Reynolds, the return may very simply embrace a number of Top 100 prospects.
Reynolds’s commerce request additional intensifies the Pirates’ want so as to add one other outfielder.
Aside from Reynolds, the Pirates have seven outfielders on their 40-man roster: Jack Suwinski, Miguel Andújar, Tucupita Marcano, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty and Ryan Vilade. Reynolds and Suwinski are projected to start out in middle subject and left subject, respectively, with proper subject being a query mark. With Reynolds’s future with the group unsure, Pittsburgh can use the Winter Meetings to develop a contingency plan within the outfield ought to a commerce materialize.
