Bryan Reynolds trade rumors have lingered over the offseason, even as there’s been nothing to indicate the Pirates have gotten seriously into discussions with any other club. As an All-Star player on a rebuilding team, Reynolds has drawn plenty of trade attention over the last couple years. The Bucs have steadfastly maintained a high asking price.
Against the backdrop of speculation has been the seeming stalemate between Reynolds and the Pirates in extension negotiations. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported over the weekend the club had offered $80MM over six years. With Reynolds eligible for arbitration through 2025, such a deal would’ve bought out three free agent seasons. According to Mackey, Reynolds’ camp had countered at $134MM over eight seasons. With discussions having stalled out, the 28-year-old requested a trade in December.
The Pirates attested that wouldn’t affect their asking price. That has seemingly borne out in the lack of substantive trade rumors over the nearly three months since then. Reynolds is back in Pirates camp. Both sides have expressed a willingness to reopen talks about an extension that could keep him in the Steel City for the long haul, though as of Saturday, the team hadn’t made a new offer.
The trade market has been dormant for the majority of the offseason. It’s entirely possible no swaps of significant note are made before Opening Day, although there are surely still plenty of teams that’d love to install Reynolds in their lineup. Teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox look likely to roll the dice on unproven options in center field. The Yankees, Braves and Rangers all have a handful of veterans for left field but explored more stable solutions at times this offseason.
Meanwhile, the Bucs and Reynolds’ camp at CAA Sports figure to touch base at some point over the coming weeks to see if they can bridge that reported $54MM gap. The deeper Reynolds gets into his arbitration seasons, the likelier it’d seem to become he prices himself out of the Pirates’ range. Perhaps they’re at that point already — even the organization’s $80MM offer would’ve represented a franchise record investment and was well shy of the asking price — but it seems each side is still amenable to negotiating despite Reynolds’ prior trade request.
Opening Day is a little over a month away. Spring Training is the most common time of year for teams and players to hammer out extensions. That’s often the result of a player setting an Opening Day deadline for those discussions, but Reynolds indicated over the weekend he had no such cutoff.
Will there be a resolution in the coming weeks, or will the uncertainty regarding the Bucs’ star carry into the regular season? Are the Pirates going to make a move with Reynolds before Opening Day: either by pulling off the long-speculated blockbuster or keeping him on a franchise-record contract?
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“Situation?” The guy is under contract for the next 3 years. Let’s all calm down here
Oh, I dunno. When the guy asks to be traded, I think that qualifies as a situation — a definite type of situation, to quote Broadway Danny Rose.
That was an emotional response and he is now saying he hopes to work out an agreement. He has pretty much rescinded the demand in my book. Its no longer a situation.
Totally agree. Anybody who follows the Pirates closely can see that there’s no bad blood between Reynolds and the Bucs with all concerned looking forward to turning the corner this season. A disgruntled player desperate for a trade would be unlikely to have their wife and two young kids fully clad in Pirates uniforms happily enjoying the game in Bradenton yesterday.
The narrative against Nutting and Bucs, while valid to some degree, has now reached the point of hysteria on this site. Time to take a back seat and see what this exciting young team can do on the baseball field rather than constantly inviting large market fans to pile on.
Cool do be able to do that, no matter what any salary negotiations would be.
I’m only a little bit jealous….. (sarc)
The guy’s got his head on straight.
of course he is.
and remember when freddie freeman said he would retire before signing with another team?
They are testing moving him to LF and playing Suwinski in CF. I remember when they did the same with Cutch/Marte and Cutch spoke out against it in the media. Reynolds has come out and said he’s ok with the move, even if it likely decreases his value. That speaks to me of a guy who wants to win and is happy where he is at. I think an extension gets done, though doubtful before the season starts.
Well, he was treated very poorly. I would have left that organization as well after that. Can’t lock everyone up for cheap!
He recently said he was still open to an extension, and would prefer to stay with the Pirates
On the other hand, owner Bob Nutting said that if he could find a way to sign Reynolds he would
Nutting earned a $64 million dollar profit in 2021. The problem isn’t Reynolds demands, it’s the cheapness of Nutting
@theman3
Wow! You’re privy to the Pirates books! How’d that come about? So if total revenue for the team was $300mm (I don’t know but it seems we are allowed to just make numbers up here) he actually made a profit of about 5% and you think that because he won’t give half that profit to one player, he’s cheap. Guess you must be anti-capitalism.
Next time, bring some facts.
it’s called google stymedone, try using it sometime
Nutting is a great avatar for modern capitalism, actually.
He didn’t build a thing, but he did use money someone else gave him to bleed every penny from an existing business someone else built a long time ago.
Theman – help me out a little – what exactly did you google to get that Nutting got $64MM profit in 2021. Everything I find is rough guessimations since the books are not open to the public. There is info on gate revenue, concessions revenue and tv revenue but only expense are players payroll. So since you are good with the google .. how about a link the states the number you quoted as a fact?
@theman I assume you mean the Operating Income reported by forbes since it is the same 64M estimate. Operating income is the team’s cash. I don’t think there is a way to know how much of that went to the owners with out opening the books or looking at the owners tax or financial records. how much of that is going into the following year(s) for other fixes/expenses not related to on the field baseball? Certainly we know the owners could pocket all of it if they choose to, it belongs to the franchise and they own the franchise.
If forbes is not what you are referring to please cite it, I am interested in learning more.
I’m not saying that they can not put more money in to player salaries where it makes sense, i would like that very much. I am just saying that the owners do not want to lose money.
It also seems like most of the stories of Bob being horrible comes from the news papers which also happen to be competitors to Ogden Publishing. Just an observation.
if I have to show you how to use a search engine you’re asking the wrong question
soooo..you’re saying you don’t have a link? how about you just enlighten us with what you asked google to search for? Or is it possible you stated a fact and can only find inconclusive proof to the numbers you state? Want the right question to ask? here it is..
Did you misunderstand something you read online, post it as fact and now can’t prove your claim so you lash out and say crap like “try using google sometime or if I have to show you how to use a search engine….”
while the books aren’t open to the public, each team provides ticket sales, stadium revenues, operating expenses and payroll salaries to MLB
Total revenue for the Bucs in 2021 was $258 million
how about doing your own research instead. I found the information why should I provide the link?
We’re not friends
@theman3 that’s not how things work if your going to make an argument using data or facts on what your basing your argument on. anyone can look up numbers like sales or ownership net worth, but just because you google it means every credible site is going to say the same thing. anyone not just you lose credibility when they refuse to show proof of there argument, like you said we’re not friends so unless you show us something far as the rest of us are concerned your just pulling stuff out your a
All of those make up a fair amount of what determines a corporations profits… but not all. Without all info you are estimating ( guessing) profits made by the team.. and then stating for a fact Nutting himself made $64MM from said profits that you can’t prove. You read something that gave an opinion of what that author felt Nutting made and stated it as fact. You got called out. We are not friends but I wish you no ill will – have a great day.
Riff, take your own advice and look up an investigative piece the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did on Pirates ownership a couple summers back
Let me give you a quick synopsis that is easily researched:
1. Ticket sales/gate receipts, stadium merch and concession cuts alone—alone—paid for the major league Pirates salaries and operating costs. Let me say that again: that money alone funded the Pirates big league team
2. The Pirates share of MLB TV money, local TV money and other ancillary streams of funding represented a huge pool of money with the only expenditures being minor league ops, salaries and draft signings/bonuses
It should be noted MLB will not open their books, a well guarded “secret” for the cosa nostra ownership. But I’m sure you know this already, hence the cocky tone of your posts
Common sense would tell even the most casual fan and certainly anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Major League Baseball franchise financing that ownership likely made well more than $64M.
You want facts? You do the legwork and find the investigative piece.
The articles from the Post-Gazette are what I initially found ( several ones from several years I was only able to access one), I would take issue with a few things within the article – on face value yes the data points to large profit but without all books its conjecture.. Businesses run at a profit so I would expect a profit to be made by the team. Lets say there was $64 MM profit – privately held corp. Nutting and family owns a majority.. I couldn’t find how big a majority – could be 51% could be 95% – if you can find it I’d like to see it but nothing I look for is coming up with a flat answer. Saying Nutting is keeping $64MMprofit all to himself is a guess and you cannot prove otherwise – just as I cannot prove he didn’t. had the initial poster just said ” I got the number I was quoting as fact from the Gazette report” we could have had a discussion to the accuracy or interpretation of said article. He chose to go the ” look it up yourself ” smary attitude that I admit occasionally rubs me the wrong way and I called him out for it. Is that wrong? Maybe but thats on my general old age crankiness. No matter what it doesn’t change the fact that he made a claim of something as a fact when it was not a fact but a best guess estimate by a company that is a rival to Nuttings media Epmire ( totally another discussion). we will agree to disagree or just we interpreted thingfs differently. Have a great day
@corn reading the April 2022 PG story doesn’t get a full picture. Is one small slice of the pie. Still an almost interesting read. I may have missed it, but i’m assuming the SEA fees include the tax on ticket sales they took as part of the deal for the park.
The ticket/concession sale did not cover opening day payroll really since the pirates started winning in the in 2016 through 2019. since 2007 the pirates opening day payroll was lower than stadium ticket sales 5 years and most of the time it was, is wasn’t too far off depending on your perspective.
changing it to the year end 40 man it gets much closer. Add in other player “perks” it exceeds the sales quite a bit. Add in player insurance teams often get against players, Add in coaching staff, medical staff, scouts way exceeds it. Add in the front office salaries office staff, executives… i think you see where this is going.
Yes the team still likely makes a sizable profit bringing in other sources like the TV, streaming, licensee, etc like you say. But ticket sales vs opening day MLB roster is nothing but an interesting number and should be used as a basis for nothing with out dropping in all the factors that we both mentioned and those we didn’t.
I didn’t say Nutting himself made $64M in profit
And again, it’s all conjecture since MLB refuses to release actual figures. But let’s be realistic. In the era of skyrocketing salaries, let’s stop saying owners of small market teams are just scraping by. That’s ridiculous
I’d refer you to an interview the PG did with Mark Cuban a couple years back in which he said that Nutting would be crazy to sell, that he’s making a very nice profit
Granted, the goal of any business is to make money. No one is begrudging that of MLB owners and at the end of the day the very fact that everything is skyrocketing is directly tied to fans, because “we” pay the piper
No, Nutting is loathed by many thanks to his continual usage of pretzel logic when describing the plight of the Pirates. He’s still using is, as illustrated in a recent interview posted here. No one is expecting him to spend like major market colleagues, but getting rid of salaries, signing castoffs and then castigating fans for non support is outrageous. He’d have been better served in telling us to be patient, that he has empathy, yadda yadda
I’m just seeing the PG is putting articles behind paywalls now. Sorry about that, and about commenting on all of this again when I said I was done
And you have a great day, too!
Cornwhisperer – no worries we’re good. I know you didn’t state what Nutting made – was the original poster that started this mess lol.
Here’s a link for you:
https://www.marcnormandin.com/2022/04/11/the-pirates-are-making-much-much-more-money-than-theyre-spending/
Fully agree. No need for a long-term contract unless you think he will defy the odds and become a better player into his 30’s (that’s not likely).
If anything happens it’ll most likely be right before the Trade Deadline. That’ll be when his value is at its highest. And with the high price of established hitters, teams might be more inclined to trade for him to get him to sign that 8-year $134M contract.
came to say the same. its not a real “situation” until 2024/5 off season. getting a more secure relationship between team and player would be beneficial to everyone though
No reason to extend him and only worth trading if other teams give an offer they can’t refuse.
Best option is if another team offers a fair trade. Next is to use him for his prime years and make a couple of runs and take the comp pick. I would be ok with a 7 95 or 8 105 contract. They have him until age 31. Do you see him playing cf well after that? I find him only ok there now. How many 900 ops seasons do you see? 2021 might be his best season. I would rather lock up another player for less. Maybe even 2. Rather have 100 million and prospects than Reynolds. I see him starting opening day as a pirate with no extension. Extension more likely than trade.
I’m gonna stay optimistic, hope the Pirates and Reynolds can hammer out an extension, and whatever happens from here happens. That’s all I can do.
Is the $134 number still valid? The market changed and escalated since his original request.
No.
It’s been resolved. Nothing to see here. Go Bucs!
Tune in
At this same bat-time…..on this same bat-channel…..
Are you implying a trade to Gotham City?
“Tune in tomorrow – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel”
Dodgers have an incredible surplus of awesome young pitchers with Miller, Stone, Pepiot.
I don’t like sending top pitchers away, but with Lux going down, it wouldn’t hurt to kick the tires with the Pirates, who have a need for arms.
I would put Miller and Stone as nearly untouchable, but maybe move Pepiot in a deal.
You have to give up talent to get talent. If trading away a player would hurt, that’s probably the right feeling if you want to acquire a player like Reynolds.
If the Pirates keep him they’ll likely go bankrupt and Cohen will have to rescue them.
Highly unlikely that they would bankrupt
Apparently you don’t know the value of either the franchise or Nutting’s personal wealth
Read sarcasm much? Also the owners personal wealth has nothing to do one of his companies not being solvent. Ask Trump and his casinos.
sarcasm is noted by using s/
new to internet jargon?
ever heard of google?
You probably need to recalibrate your sarcasm detector.
Yeah that was obviously sarcasm.
When a player clamors for an extension it usually means they know their performance is going to crater due to injury or going off a “nutrition” regime. Mediocre year coming up.
Amaze us with several proven examples. Otherwise, what a ludicrous comment.
when a person makes such a ridiculous comment it proves they don’t know squat of what they’re talking about
Any resolution would hinge on two mutually exclusive requirements:
a) Reynolds turning idiot and signing his future away for peanuts.
b) Nutting acting like the owner of a legit MLB franchise and paying market value.
None of these scenarios appear very probable. Unless Nutting bribes an opposing pitcher to bean Reynolds in the noggin during spring training. Perchance this causes visions of good Ol’ Bob riding butt naked on a pink unicorn, convincing Reynolds to stay in loser’s La La Land forever.
If you think there are only two possible outcomes, you lack imagination. I will give you option C. Compromise.
Your option C represents option A. Considering the Pirates’ insulting lowball offer, any “compromise” Nutting would agrees to likely requires Reynolds to leave a ton of money on the table.
Why should Reynolds help subsidizing Nutting, only to stay with his perennially bottom-feeding franchise, empty ballpark and no postseasons included?
No matter what delusional bull the Bucs’ FO feeds the gullible part of their fanbase, that franchise won’t ever turn the corner under the current ownership.
Pirates have no reason to make a panic move. It’s possible someone will overwhelm them with a trade offer, but they’ve no reason to give Reynolds full market value on an extension now, accepting that risk, and unless he’s hurt or underperforms, his value won’t seriously diminish holding him until the trade deadline. I’d say odds are only 10% that something gets done before OD.
Reynolds is coming into his 3 prime years, all controlled through arbitration. He will be moved back to LF. Pirates hold all the cards here, not going to just wipe slate of arb years clean, that would be a horrible business move and Nutting makes few of those. Traded to another team that might buy out his arb years with a mega contract not likely if trade consumes too many prospects. Small market teams do not give out 8 yr $134 million contracts to 29 year old players with 2 arb years remaining. Pirates need to come up a little higher, 5-10 million. Reynolds needs someone to tell him $134 is a pipe dream!
The vibe your getting on Pirates broadcasts, via TV and print reports and others on the ground in Bradenton is that they’re going to get this extension done
I agree with YourDreamGM above but at this point, see his option 2 as the better idea.
At every turn, Pirates brass wish to tell you they’ll be competitive this year. Doesn’t mean they’ll win more than they’ll lose but it does entail progress
And if that’s the case, they simply have no one ready to play CF. In fact, I’m not sure they have enough guys to man the OF in general for an entire season.
Add to this that Reynolds is still their most disciplined hitter by far, a tough out and run producer….I dunno. Where do runs come from without him?
They have a lot of good, athletic talent coming up soon. Hopefully they can develop these kids in every aspect of the game.
To Cardinals for Dylan Carlson, Juan Yepez, and Trent Baker.
There’s no reason for Pirates front office to do anything. He’s under arbitration control for another, what 3 years? Reynolds can ask for a trade or extension all he wants, but this isn’t the NBA, teams are under no obligation to acquiesce to their players’s desires.
Freidman will cave at some point
Underneath the LUX/ACL tear story there is an interesting comment or two about getting Reynolds and moving Betts in for the year and reconfiguring the infield.
Don’t know why you’d move a superstar outfielder in to the infield but stranger things have happened
Pay this man. I want to see the Bucs competing in the foreseeable future.
Paying a .270 hitter with 25HRs isn’t the answer. The Bucs won’t compete seriously until they have quality starting pitching. Its another year of JT Brubaker, Mitch Keller (hopefully he’s better), and now Vince Velasquez, and old man Hill. I think i just threw up a little in my mouth
The funny thing about circles is that they’re circular. They’re caught on the Oakland A’s speedway and they’re going to need to pay someone every once in a while to find the off-ramp. I’m rooting for your boys to be competitive but we’ve been watching them go down this path for a painfully long time.
Well, after all, they ARE the Pirates, right? How do pirates make a living?