Pirates A to Z: Bryan Reynolds solidified himself as All-Star in middle of outfield, batting order

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z: An alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Miguel Yajure.

Player: Bryan Reynolds

Position: Outfield

Throws: Right

Bats: Both

Age: 26

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 210 pounds

2021 MLB statistics: Reynolds batted .302/.390/.522 with 35 doubles, eight triples, 24 home runs and 90 RBIs in 159 games.

Contract: Not eligible for arbitration until 2023.

Acquired: In a trade from the San Francisco Giants, along with Kyle Crick, in exchange for Andrew McCutchen in January 2018.

This past season: Reynolds didn’t have any answers for what was wrong in the shortened 2020 season, when he went from batting .314 as a rookie to .189 while enduring a sophomore slump.

But he did have a solution.

Jacob Stallings saw it as a strong sign that Bryan Reynolds would have a bounce-back year when the Pirates outfielder came to one of his son’s baseball games in a state of soreness.

“He could barely walk because he’d hurt his back lifting,” Stallings said. “He was squatting. He had already started working out two days after the season. It was right then that I knew he had the hunger and desire to work as hard as he had worked coming into the season. That’s not an exaggeration. It was like three days after the season, and he’d hurt his back lifting.”

Reynolds recovered to carry the Pirates through a 61-win season that saw him lead the majors in triples, hit career highs in home runs and RBIs, play in his first All-Star Game, switch to center field and become a Gold Glove finalist and finish 11th in the NL MVP voting.

“It’s tough. Nobody wants to lose. Not the way we wanted the season to go,” Reynolds said. “But you’ve still got to go out there every day and try to do your best.”

What was remarkable about Reynolds was his consistency. He batted .302 in the first half, .303 in the second half, hit 18 doubles off right-handers and 17 off lefties, had 12 home runs at home and the other 12 on the road. He batted .296 in eight games at the No. 2 spot in the order, .302 in 142 games in the three-hole.

“The thing that I appreciate the most is his accountability. The second thing is this guy plays harder than anybody in baseball,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, citing Reynolds trying to stretch doubles into triples in the final week of the season. “That’s the culture we’re talking about. When your best player every night plays like that, that’s the thing that stands out. We will highlight that, not only with Bryan Reynolds but with the rest of our group. The thing that stands out to me is how hard Bryan Reynolds plays on a nightly basis and as much as he plays, man.”

Reynolds played in 159 games for the Pirates, including 136 games in center field after the Anthony Alford/Dustin Fowler experiment failed in April. He made enough diving and sliding catches and throwing runners out at the plate to draw notice as an NL Gold Glove finalist.

Another Bryan Reynolds highlight. pic.twitter.com/V45ixFdcRP

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 8, 2021

Reynolds also was a finalist for a Silver Slugger Award after tying for the major-league lead in triples and ranking among the NL top 10 in most offensive categories, including a 6.0 WAR that ranked him just behind Brandon Crawford, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Riley (all 6.1) and just ahead of NL MVP Bryce Harper (5.9).

“Whenever you’re mentioned in the same sentence as those guys, it’s pretty cool,” Reynolds said. “They’re special players. I’m trying to attack the offseason and get better.”

“I hoped it would happen. One of my goals this year, so it's really exciting,” Reynolds said. “I had flights booked home, but you can always cancel those. So those are canceled now. I was just going to sit on my couch. I'm pretty sure I'll take this 10 times out of 10 over that one. So, yeah, flight's cancelled.”

Reynolds refused to dwell on his sophomore slump, instead focusing on putting the barrel of his bat on the ball and trying to turn hits into extra bases. There was talk of him being a candidate for comeback player of the year honors, though Reynolds wasn’t campaigning for it.

“I don’t need any validation,” Reynolds said. “I feel like I’m happy with how I bounced back.”

The future: Pirates general manager Ben Cherington called it “exciting to see how Reynolds solidified himself in the middle of the field,” as well as the batting order.

Whether that is rewarded with a contract extension or a trade to contender remains to be seen.

Asked if he wants to play for the Pirates long term, Reynolds gave a roundabout answer: “I’ve been saying all year that I like Pittsburgh. I like the staff we’ve got here, I like the players, I like the city. So … yeah, I like it here, yeah.”

While Cherington expressed interest in talking about a long-term contract, Reynolds has been the subject of trade talk this offseason. Playing in his prime with years of control remaining has made Reynolds one of the hottest names on the hot stove, though the Pirates are reportedly asking a king’s ransom.

“As we get into the offseason, that’s a door that we want to open again,” Cherington said of extension talks. “That’s not specific to any one player. We want to continue to have an open door to that conversation with players as they get to our major league roster. I know I’ve said before, for a lot of cases for different reasons, you open the door, you share information, it doesn’t go much further than that. It just doesn’t make sense to for either party. Sometimes it leads to a longer conversation. Even more infrequently, it actually leads to a deal.

“You can’t do those deals unless you first open the door. We would just plan to open the door again. Again, that’s not specific to any one player. Our hope over time, yes, that we’ll find some of those opportunities to extend guys we believe in and represent the right things and we believe can be part of a winning team here for a long time. And want to be here for a long time.”