Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Season Grades: Outfielders

The next part in our series of grading Pittsburgh Pirates positions from the 2021 season is the outfield

Having an elite outfielder makes watching any team instantly more fun. Guys who can make sensational plays on balls and then go to the plate and knock one out of the park are great. For a bottom-feeder team like the Pittsburgh Pirates, they need all the talent they can get. Luckily, they have a built in all-star out there to help accelerate the rebuild.

In part two of the player grades series, I will be assessing and grading the outfielders for the Pirates. Part one, grading the infielders and catchers on the Pirate roster, can be found here.

With injuries and roster moves changing the landscape of the outfield all the way back to Opening Day, only four players ended up qualifying for a player grade. To qualify, the player must currently be on the Pirate 40-man roster and have played 35+ games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

As an aside, Gregory Polanco made 107 appearances in the outfield for the Pittsburgh Pirates but was released and signed by the Toronto Blue Jays. Jared Oliva made 20 appearances for the Pirates but didn’t have enough to qualify. He also likely doesn’t figure into the Pirates’ future plans.

Without further ado, let us get to grading the Pirate outfielders.

Ben Gamel

GRADE: C+

2021 Stats: 111 games, .255/.352/.399, 8 home runs, 26 RBI, -0.3 WAR

You have to give it up for Ben Gamel. The 29-year-old outfielder was a big reason the Pirates had any semblance of consistency in their corner outfield spots. The Pittsburgh Pirates claiming him was certainly a smart move.

Not that eight home runs is that impressive but he did rank fifth on the team in that category. The Pirates needed every bit of pop they could get.

This is Gamel’s 5th Major League team. It is clear that he isn’t going to improve all that much more. He is what he is, a solid fourth outfielder on a good team. In Pittsburgh, Gamel is afforded an opportunity to play nearly every day. The Pirates would be wise to try and resign him, even if it is for another year.

Defensively, the Pirates certainly could find better. He is a -1.2 WAR defender. That is certainly not the best number. With his bat playing as productively as it did for most of the year, the Pirates can brush off the sub-par defense. His defense is why I hesitated to go any higher with my grade.

Resign him and play him until someone like Travis Swaggerty comes to the Majors. Gamel could play his way into being a solid trade candidate with another good season like his 2021 campaign was with the Pirates.

Bryan Reynolds

GRADE: A+

2021 Stats: 159 games, .302/.390./.522, 24 home runs, 90 RBI, 6.0 WAR

May the Pirates order nine Bryan Reynolds please? The Al-Star center fielder authored a sensational season akin to the likes of Andrew McCutchen. He is going to be a star in the league for a while.

Reynolds’s 24 home runs more than doubled that of any other player on the team. He was a major part of the batting title race clear up until early August. With a .912 OPS, Reynolds showed that he can bat in the heart of a lineup regardless of the team he plays on.

Reynolds made plenty of diving catches and catches at the wall over the course of the season. A closer look at his defensive WAR has him at -0.3. That number suggests many of those catches were more about luck than his ability to read balls and get to them in an easier fashion.

Reynolds has above average speed but nothing that would blow anyone away. That certainly doesn’t help trying to patrol the mass in center field.

Anytime you can post those numbers offensively, especially on a team as bad as the Pirates were in 2021, you can forget the defensive aspect of the game. It isn’t like Reynolds is a liability in the field.

For all of that, Reynolds earns the only A+ you’ll see throughout the three part player grades series.

Yoshi Tsutsugo

GRADE: B-

2021 Stats (PIT): 43 games, .268/.347/.535, 8 home runs, 25 RBI, 0.1 WAR

The above stats ignored Yoshi Tsutsugo‘s stats prior to coming to Pittsburgh. They’re ugly and bring his numbers down tremendously. We’re going to focus only his Pittsburgh tenure.

Tsutsugo found something in Pittsburgh that he had struggled to find elsewhere – his power.

With 8 home runs in 43 games, Tsutsugo pushed for a lot of playing time down the stretch. He got to platoon with Colin Moran at first base as well as playing in the outfield a bit. He isn’t the smoothest defender but he played a treacherous right field at PNC Park which is unforgiving to many fielders.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates do end up re-signing Tsutsugo, it feels likely he would play more at first base than as an outfielder in 2022. The Pirates need more production offensively out of their first base position. Moran just doesn’t hit for enough power.

Is it likely the switch to Pittsburgh has turned Tsutsugo into Barry Bonds. Because of what feels like an obvious regression next year, maybe it’s best to see what else is out there. If he comes affordable, however, you’ve absolutely got to bring him back next year to see exactly what it is he can bring over the course of an entire season in an expanded role.

If he re-signs, the Pirates could always look to move Moran and create space for someone else to play that position in some sort of platoon with Tsutsugo.