Bryan Reynolds believes he fixed the flaw that derailed his 2025 season with Pirates

The most encouraging part of Bryan Reynolds’ early-spring confidence isn’t the bravado, or lack thereof. It’s the specificity.

When a veteran hitter shows up to camp saying he “feels great,” you shrug and move on. But Reynolds didn’t give the Pirates a vibe quote. He gave them a mechanical admission — one that explains why a season can slide sideways without anyone needing to name it in a headline.

Reynolds said his entire offseason focus was syncing up earlier with his swing, getting “on plane” sooner. And then he doubled down with the line that actually matters: his “swing and path are completely different than they were last year.” 

Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds thinks he finally solved his most frustrating issue

If you watched the 2025 version of Reynolds and kept waiting for the usual stabilizing stretch, it never quite arrived. The at-bats looked a tick behind. And for a hitter whose value lives in being a steady, professional problem for pitchers, being late is the quickest way to become ordinary.

He’s basically telling us the flaw wasn’t effort, approach or confidence. It was timing and direction. When your barrel isn’t matching the pitch early enough, you’re living on defensive contact, foul balls, and the awful purgatory of “almost.” You don’t need a dramatic injury to derail a season — sometimes your swing just stops working for the version of pitching you’re seeing every night.

The most frustrating part is we’ve got the 2025 line to prove it wasn’t just “a down month” that people overreacted to. Reynolds hit .245 with 16 homers and 73 RBI in 154 games, which is playable on paper but light for someone the Pirates need to anchor the order. Under the hood, it was even louder: career-low .315 wOBA and a 99 wRC+, basically league-average impact from a hitter who’s usually above that baseline. 

The swing issues showed up in the shape of his contact, too — a 26.5 percent strikeout rate paired with a career-low 28.5 percent flyball rate.

The Pirates don’t need Reynolds to become something new. They just need him to be the dependable center of the lineup again. When Reynolds is right, Pittsburgh’s order has shape. When he’s not, it’s a lineup that can drift into long stretches where every rally needs perfect sequencing and good luck.

Spring training won’t prove he fixed it. Real games will. But the fact that Reynolds is openly identifying the problem — and describing a real, tangible adjustment — is a much better sign than any clip of batting practice fireworks. 

This is a player telling you he found the loose wire and believes he finally tightened it.