Pittsburgh Pirates: Why Each Connected Team Can’t Afford Bryan Reynolds

Examining reasons as to why each team connected to Bryan Reynolds will not swing a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Reynolds

There have been some rumors floating around about some teams looking into Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds. Reynolds is coming off a great 2021 campaign that saw him bat .302/.390/.522 with a .385 wOBA, and 142 wRC+. Plus he smacked 24 home runs and had the first 5+ fWAR season since Andrew McCutchen and Francisco Cervelli back in 2015.

Reynolds is controlled through the 2025 season, giving him four years of control remaining. Now the rumors aren’t all that surprising. While the Pirates are nearing a major turning point in the rebuild, they’re still rebuilding nonetheless. Teams are going to kick the tires on every player on every rebuilding team, regardless of control remaining.

But there is nothing to worry about for the Pittsburgh Pirates or their fans. According to Jon Heyman, the Bucs have an “astronomical” price on Reynolds. There are multiple reasons why the teams who have looked into Reynolds, namely the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins, and Seattle Mariners, won’t trade for the Pirate outfielder.

New York Yankees

The Yankees do have some very intriguing pieces. Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez are probably the best prospects New York has. But the thing is, they probably won’t part with either of them. Sure, Reynolds is absolutely worth both of them and then some (they’d have to get back more than just Dominguez and Volpe) but the Yankees aren’t known for trading their high-end prospects.

The last time the Yankees traded any consensus top 20 or higher prospect was nearly a decade ago. That was when they traded Jesus Montero to the Seattle Mariners for 2011 All-Star right-handed pitcher Michael Pineda. Teams don’t just trade top 20 prospects, let alone multiple. So why all of a sudden would the Yankees do something they haven’t done about a decade?

Seattle Mariners

Finally, we have the Seattle Mariners as one of the teams who has checked in on Reynolds. The Mariners would have the pieces to get it done. Julio Rodriguez and Noelvi Marte are essentially consensus top 10 prospects. Emmerson Hancock and George Kirby are consensus top 50 prospects. Don’t forget they also have Jarred Kelenic, who graduated prospect status this year, but went into 2021 as a consensus top 5 prospect.

But again, the Mariners aren’t about to deplete the farm system for one player when they still have holes on their major league roster that Reynolds wouldn’t fix on his own. Reportedly, the Pirates want both Rodriguez and Marte. It wouldn’t be all that shocking if they wanted one of Hancock, Kirby, or Kelenic to go with JRod and Marte. After all, the Pirates asking price back at the deadline was three, consensus top 50 or better prospects. I don’t see why that would change. If anything, it’s gone up given that Reynolds was better in the second half of 2021 and then was a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove finalist, and is a good bet to finish top 10 in National League MVP voting.

The M’s are in a situation the Pittsburgh Pirates could find themselves in by the end of next year or 2023. They have a ton of top prospects making their way to the major leagues. While they’ll probably trade-off some prospects, the likes of Rodriguez, Marte, and potentially Hancock are probably as untouchable as Reynolds.

Rodriguez is considered part of their future outfield. By the time J.P. Crawford reaches the end of his contract, Marte will be about 22-23 years old and will be groomed to take over for the former’s position. You also have to consider that the Mariners don’t usually trade their high-end young commodities. The last time they traded a top 50 or better prospect was Tyler O’Neill, which ended up being for another high-ranking prospect in Marco Gonzales.

Conclusion

The last time that multiple top 50 or better prospects were moved in one trade was the deal that sent Chris Sale, a guy who consistently finished in the top 5 of American League Cy Young voting and lowest single-season fWAR in the 5 seaosns prior was 4.7, to the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox gave the White Sox Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. Moncada was a consensus top 3 prospect and Kopech was a consensus top 50 prospect.

Very rarely do teams trade top 50 or better prospects, let alone multiple of them. The very few times that it has happened, it’s been for a player who is considered in the top echlon of players at the time. While that’s no knock on Reynolds, it’s been for guys who have had at least 3 seasons where they were considered all-star or better level players. Reynolds was really good in 2021, but still has only 3 major league seasons under his belt (2, 100+ game seasons as 2020 was only 60 games).

The Pirates are asking for multiple of them for Reynolds. The Pirates want the moon, stars, and the rest of the Milky Way for him. That’s an insanely high asking price, but a very reasonable one as well.

Teams know how the game is played. Winning teams build a good portion of their roster from within the organization and then outsource reinforcements. There’s no team that will meet the Pirates’ reasonable asking price for Bryan Reynolds, even if they have the pieces to do so, because it would mean potentially mortgaging the future of multiple good players for just one singluar really good player.