
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.