SAN DIEGO — Bryan Reynolds remains under contractual control through the 2025 season, but it's hard to see him remaining a Pirate for that long.
No, impossible.
In fact, after Saturday's news that Reynolds wants to be traded, it's honestly hard to see the All-Star outfielder returning in 2024.
The Pirates issued a statement Saturday saying essentially they weren't going to immediately move Reynolds, and they certainly don't have to. But think about this situation from a couple different perspectives.
Right or wrong, Reynolds clearly doesn't think he's going to be paid what he's worth while playing in Pittsburgh. And whether the trade demand should be interpreted as a business ripcord Reynolds pulled versus his unhappiness is something we may never know.
Reynolds has said repeatedly how much he likes it here. What happened Saturday obviously says otherwise. It would also be foolish to not point out that money was a factor.
The weird thing here is that a trade may actually be the best path forward here for both parties, provided Pirates general manager Ben Cherington winds up with a deal that legitimately helps his team now and in future years.
With the Red Sox, Yankees, Padres, Mariners, Marlins, Astros and Braves all having some sort of link to Reynolds over the past couple years — usually expressing interest and cursory conversations about a potential deal — Cherington should not be short on options, especially not now.
If the right deal comes along, cool. If he has to wait until the trade deadline, also not terrible. But if you're Cherington, the trick here is maximizing return on a player that he technically does not have to move.
Yet if you're occupying space in the Pirates clubhouse, isn't it weird to have your best player just there ... when the entire world knows he doesn't really want to be? As likable as Reynolds might be, it's hard to see how Ke'Bryan Hayes or David Bednar can just ignore that sort of elephant and go play ball.
While speaking with the Post-Gazette in February 2021, both Cherington and assistant general manager Kevan Graves described a change in the Pirates' trading philosophy, where they prioritized accumulating a number of younger prospects and rebuilding the farm system on volume.
"In the cases where we have big-league talent leaving, it's really, really difficult to get those difference-making, upper-echelon players," Graves said. "They're just not getting traded, even for just good major league players."
For the Pirates to entertain a Reynolds trade, they need to buck this trend. Forget a bevy of young guys. They would need to take Reynolds' major league value — an .842 OPS, 126 wRC+ and 3.6 bWAR over four seasons — and use it to actually address other spots.
With an MLB-ready outfielder who brought plus value, not question marks. With a starting pitcher who wasn't a project and could take the ball every fifth day and give the Pirates a chance to win. With a prospect or two who offered more than a snowball's chance in hell of panning out.
Will the Pirates get any of that? Who knows? But Cherington absolutely must use Reynolds' request as a pivot point to add value in other places.
Meanwhile, if the Pirates would wind up trading Reynolds and saving what could be more than $30 million over the next three seasons with arbitration, it's not hard to figure out what to do with that money.
See the 6-foot-7 dude with massive power over there? Yeah, him. Make sure Oneil Cruz sticks around awhile.
If a trade would materialize — again, assuming they get back actual value for Reynolds — it might not be a completely terrible thing for Pirates. Jack Suwinski and Ji Hwan Bae could and would become regulars. Again, any trade should be required to net another regular contributor in the outfield.
From there, the next sharp turn on this path is probably more experimentation with Cruz in the outfield, a position switch that he has resisted to this point. But if he plays 130 games at shortstop and makes a boatload of errors, those discussions might look different next offseason.
Cruz also wants to win more than anything, and it could be the best way for the Pirates to deploy young talent. Liover Peguero at shortstop. Nick Gonzales and Termarr Johnson as options at second. Rodolfo Castro will play somewhere if he hits.
They'll need homes for Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis (likely catcher) and have middle-ground question marks with Canaan Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty, Cal Mitchell, Matt Gorski, Blake Sabol and more.
It's tough to expect any of those guys to turn out better than Reynolds, who rightfully received MVP votes in 2021. He's an elite player, a star. But there's also no mechanism that ensures they won't.
The truth of the thing is that, whether fans like it or not, sizable contract extensions like the one Reynolds has earned are always going to be tough.
The Pirates made an offer to Reynolds that surpassed Ke'Bryan Hayes' $70 million deal in total value, sources confirmed. It wasn't a bad-faith offer by any stretch. But a sticking point became the length of contract and how Reynolds' value — obviously interpreted differently by each side — should be best represented.
At this point, it's pretty much impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube. The best thing the Pirates can probably do is simply brush and move on.
