Pirates OF Bryan Reynolds honored as MLB player of the week after hot start to the season

Bryan Reynolds wanted to get off to a good start this season, but the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder didn’t imagine it would be the best opening week of anybody in baseball.

Reynolds was named MLB player of the week Monday after leading the National League with 12 hits, 28 total bases, nine runs, 12 RBIs and a 1.120 slugging percentage and tying for the NL lead with four home runs and ranking second with a .480 batting average.

“I’d probably be lying if I said I did,” Reynolds said. “I just hoped that I could hit the ground running. I’d say it’s a good start so far.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton credited the work Reynolds put in with hitting coach Andy Haines in the offseason for helping make sure his swing was in the right spot for spring training. Shelton had Haines inform Reynolds he’d won the MLB player of the week honors.

“He’s right on things. I think that’s the big thing,” Shelton said. “I do think the fact that we’ve lengthened our lineup out helps him, too. There’s not as much pressure on him. When you take pressure off that and you give him pitches to hit, he’s gonna do some damage. I think we’ve seen that.”

Reynolds hit safely in the Pirates’ first nine games, including a trio of three-hit performances. He went 3 for 5 and tied a career-best with six RBIs in the 13-9 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday in the home opener at PNC Park, going a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

Reynolds started the season by going 2 for 8 in the first two games but credited the surge to a change to his approach in the opening weekend finale at Cincinnati. He hit his first home run of the season in his second at-bat, a 410-foot shot in the fourth inning of the 3-1 loss to the Reds. It was the first of four homers in a three-day span, as Reynolds went back-to-back April 2 against the Boston Red Sox and added another the next day.

“Timing is big for me,” Reynolds said. “I think the last game of the first series, I think I tried to overemphasize it a little extra, almost treat it like a two-strike approach from the start of the at-bat so I get down more in my legs earlier and down earlier and everything. It felt good so I just kept doing it.”

Reynolds is the first Pirates player to win the honor since Adam Frazier on July 8, 2019.

“It’s pretty cool,” Reynolds said. “It’s nice, something I’ll be able to have and be able to tell my kids about.”