Analysis: By requesting a trade, Bryan Reynolds sets up a standoff with Pirates

With MLB’s Winter Meetings coming, it was inevitable that Bryan Reynolds would be rumored as a candidate to be dealt to a contender. Despite enduring back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the Pittsburgh Pirates had resisted any inquiries into the former All-Star outfielder’s availability.

So Reynolds took preemptive action by requesting a trade, backing the club into a corner where it has to pay him, move him or deal with their most productive player being their least satisfied.

The trade request could put the Pirates and Reynolds in a standoff. The Pirates haven’t made a commitment to Reynolds beyond the 2023 season but own his rights through 2025, so they don’t have to trade him. If they are going to trade Reynolds, the Pirates would prefer to do so from a position of power instead of acquiescing to a demand.

Such sentiment was reflected in a statement released by a Pirates spokesperson Saturday afternoon: “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.”

MLB insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Pirates “offered to make Reynolds the highest-paid Pirate in team history” in terms of total salary. If so, it would top the franchise-record, eight-year, $70 million deal signed by third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes on April 7.

Related:

• Pirates OF Bryan Reynolds requests trade; team says it has 'zero impact on our decision-making'

“That says something,” Heyman added, “but fairly, not that much since Reynolds has much more service time and is a more accomplished big leaguer.”

That the Pirates invested in Hayes before Reynolds was telling, though Hayes’ contract is team-friendly and frontloaded so that he would be paid $10 million in each of the first two seasons of the deal, $7 million per season from 2024-27 and $8 million per season in 2028-29, with a $12 million club option in 2030.

Pirates chairman Bob Nutting told the Tribune-Review that the structure of the contract “was intentional.” That way, the Pirates could afford to pay other players — such as a budding star in shortstop Oneil Cruz — once the club was closer to contending.

“It was not an accident,” Nutting said. “To be able to make a commitment to him now allows him to sign a long-term deal because we’re going to pay up front for it. If we have some flexibility in those middle years to be able to supplement around him, those are the kinds of decisions we need to make — good decisions for the Pittsburgh Pirates — to be able to put us in a position to build a truly championship-caliber team.”

With Reynolds, the Pirates appeared ready to go to arbitration, until the sides agreed to a two-year contract at $6.75 million per year on April 14. Reynolds has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining before he becomes a free agent in 2025.

Reynolds, 27, was coming off a season when he was selected for his first All-Star Game, was a finalist for the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and slashed .302/.390/.522 with 35 doubles, tied for the MLB lead with eight triples, had 24 home runs and a career-best 90 RBIs.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton hasn’t hesitated to call Reynolds the team’s best player, citing his baserunning habit of stretching singles into doubles and doubles into triples as setting an example for teammates and earning Reynolds a nomination for the Heart and Hustle Award.

“It’s the gold standard,” Shelton said, “when your best player plays like that.”

Reynolds isn’t being paid like the Pirates’ best player, let alone gold standard. Perhaps that’s because he’s had an up-and-down tenure with a team that has been one of baseball’s worst in his four major-league seasons. The Pirates were 69-93 in 2019, had the fewest wins in MLB (19) in 2020, went 61-101 in 2021 and 62-100 last season.

Reynolds was terrific as a rookie, batting .314 with an .880 OPS and a career-best 37 doubles but never found a groove in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, scuffling to a .189 batting average and 19 RBIs in 55 games. Reynolds bounced back in 2021, then was voted team MVP after hitting .262 with 19 doubles, a career-high 27 homers and 62 RBIs last season.

Reynolds has repeatedly stated he likes Pittsburgh and wants to be a centerpiece in the Pirates’ rebuild, so this stance is quite the contrast from his most recent statement in October about his future with the club.

“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,” said Reynolds, who didn’t respond to a message from the Tribune-Review. “Obviously, I want to be a part of it. Any way I can be part of it, I’ll be happy.”

That stance has shifted.

When Ben Cherington was asked about Reynolds on MLB Network’s Hot Stove show last month, the Pirates general manager talked about his appreciation and respect for Reynolds, saying he was “incredibly consistent, reliable, plays the game so hard.” But Cherington stopped short of saying that Reynolds would be in the Pirates’ long-term plans.

“He’s someone anyone would want on their team,” Cherington said. “We’re focused on helping the Pirates getting to a better spot and moving towards a winning team in Pittsburgh.”

Asked pointedly on a video conference call with Pittsburgh reporters a day later if he wanted to clarify those remarks regarding Reynolds, Cherington again avoided tipping his hand either way.

“There is not a statement I’ve been dying to make,” Cherington said, with a laugh. “The statement I will make is probably just a repeat of what I said before and probably not all that newsworthy, which is just that we really appreciate Bryan Reynolds for who he is. He’s a really good player. We’re lucky to have him on our team.

“We’re trying to build a better team in 2023 and beyond. We’re at a point in the offseason, as we get into this period between now and January, that we’ve got to focus all of our energy on that (goal) and we’ve got to look at every possible way that we can help the Pirates get better in 2023 and beyond. We have to continue to keep an open mind as we work through that.”

If Reynolds has a legitimate gripe, it’s that the Pirates have shown a willingness to spend in the same ballpark for less productive players. They paid catcher Roberto Perez $5 million last season, when he played 21 games before undergoing season-ending surgery on his hamstring. They paid first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo $4 million, and he batted .171 with two homers and 19 RBIs in 50 games. On Tuesday, they signed first baseman Carlos Santana, who had 19 homers and 60 RBIs last season and will be 37 in April, to a one-year deal worth $6.725 million.

The Pirates have traded players who wouldn’t agree to their extension offers, from Josh Bell to Joe Musgrove to Jameson Taillon, though they don’t have a replacement for Reynolds at the ready. Their only outfielder under contract for 2023 is Miguel Andujar, who was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees in September and signed a one-year deal for $1.525 million. Aside from another waiver claim, Ryan Vilade, the rest are rookies: Ji Hwan Bae, Tucupita Marcano, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Jack Suwinski and Travis Swaggerty.

The trade request by Reynolds puts the Pirates in a precarious position. They have vowed to improve but will have trouble doing so by dealing their best player. Trading Reynolds isn’t a statement the Pirates are dying to make but one that now appears newsworthy.