Pirates, Bryan Reynolds Agree To Two-Year Deal To Avoid Arbitration
The Pirates and center fielder Bryan Reynolds have agreed to a two-year contract to avoid arbitration, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal covers the 2022-23 campaigns and doesn’t affect the team’s window of contractual control. Reynolds is a CAA Sports client.
It’s a $13.5MM guarantee, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (on Twitter). He’ll receive matching $6.75MM salaries in each of the next two seasons, adds Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic.
Mackey wrote last week the Pirates were hoping to get a two-year deal done with Reynolds. As he noted, the Bucs are a “file-and-trial” team, meaning they decline to discuss one-year agreements with players once the deadline to exchange arbitration figures passes. That’s a fairly common practice around the league, albeit one teams set themselves.
By establishing the precedent they won’t continue negotiations after filing day, the reasoning goes, teams can deter players from filing at a high number in hopes of anchoring further discussions from an elevated starting point. If team and player go to a hearing, the arbitrator chooses one of the side’s desired figures rather than picking a midpoint. That incentivizes both to file for a salary reasonably in line with established precedent, since an outlier in either direction is less likely to be judged fair in the hearing.
On the other hand, going to a hearing with a star player like Reynolds isn’t ideal. The 27-year-old maintained in the past he wouldn’t be miffed by the process, but also acknowledged that the inherently adversarial arbitration process can sometimes get “messy” (link via Mackey). Signing a two-year deal after filing day allows the Pirates to maintain they’ve not violated their “file-and-trial” policy while avoiding the possibility of irritating one of their best players.
From Reynolds’ perspective, he locks in guaranteed earnings over the next couple years without delaying his path to free agency. He’ll also make more money this season than he would’ve even had he won a hearing. Reynolds’ camp had filed for a $4.9MM salary; the team had countered at $4.25MM. Pittsburgh will go above Reynolds’ desired mark this year to foreclose the possibility he receives a notable raise in 2023 with another big season.
Both sides are surely glad to avoid hearings for the next two years, but Reynolds’ long-term status with the organization isn’t much affected by today’s news. This was his first of four seasons of arb-eligibility as a Super Two qualifier. Barring another agreement at some point down the line, he’ll head through the arbitration process again in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 offseasons.
Reynolds is controllable through 2025, his age-30 campaign. He reportedly rejected an extension offer from the Bucs prior to the 2021 season and said in Spring Training the organization hadn’t seriously approached him about a long-term deal this year. Biertempfel tweets the two sides have discussed various potential contract structures in the past. It stands to reason they’ll eventually make a renewed effort at a longer-term pact.
NL Central Notes: Pirates, Nutting, Crowe, Contreras
Shortly after signing third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year $70MM extension, Pirates owner Bob Nutting spoke to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the team’s plans moving forward. After applauding the work done by third-year GM Ben Cherington to rebuild the team’s talent pipeline, Nutting stated his belief “that we’ve rebuilt that foundation to the point that now we can really focus on the major league club.” That’s surely welcome news for Pittsburgh fans, who have sat through an arduous rebuilding process that’s included three consecutive fifth place finishes and a bottom-three payroll entering the 2022 season (per Cot’s Contracts).
Of further note, Nutting spoke of the need to look internally and pick “a few key building blocks […] to start building here in Pittsburgh.” It’s already known that the team tried to extend All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds prior to the 2021 season, and have since settled on an arbitration-avoiding pact with the 27-year-old earlier today. Still, with Hayes locked up through his prime years and extensions on the front office’s mind they’ll be hard-pressed to find a better building block than Reynolds. Whether further extension talks take place with Reynolds or other “building blocks”— Mackey suggests breakout reliever David Bednar as one option— remains to be seen, it’s clear the franchise is ready to pivot and secure a division title for the first time since 1992.
Some other news of note from the NL’s central division…
- We’re only a few games into the new season but the Pirates feel they may have another breakout reliever on their hands, reports Kevin Gorman of Tribune-ReviewSports. After picking up a three-inning save yesterday, the first of his career, converted-starter Wil Crowe extended his streak to seven scoreless innings to open the season. Small sample size caveats are abound here, but it’s clear that the headlining return from 2020’s Josh Bell trade has seen his stuff play up out of the bullpen. After posting a 5.48 ERA across 26 games (25 starts) with below average strikeout numbers last year, Crowe has upped his swinging strike rate and ranks among the early leaders in avoiding hard contact this season.
- The Cubs and catcher Willson Contreras remain far apart in arbitration talks and it doesn’t appear an agreement will be reached without an arbiter, per NBC Sports’ Gordon Wittenmyer. While a few months remain for both sides to settle on a midpoint between their exchanged figures— Contreras filed at $10.25MM while the Cubs put forth a $9MM offer— a tidy resolution never seemed likely between the club and one of the last members of their 2016 World Series-winning core. The Cubs are a file-and-trial club and take a hard stance on discussing arbitration salaries after the figure-exchanging deadline (this year’s deadline was March 22). When asked if the club would make an exception for Contreras, given his reputation on the team and as one of the league’s better hitting catchers, team president Jed Hoyer replied “That’s not our policy. We went past the deadline.” For his part, Contreras doesn’t seem too bothered by the prospect of an arbitration hearing, noting that he’s “been going through a lot of [criticism] since I was in the minor leagues, and everything they have to say I’ve already heard it”. The 29-year-old Contreras is set to headline a decent free agent catcher market after the season, and while he hasn’t closed the window on lengthening his Cubs tenure he did note his chances of remaining with the team may take a hit once the Cubs allow him to test the market. The two-time All-Star also drew trade interest over the offseason, which may eventually expedite the catcher’s exit from his original organization.
Offseason In Review: Pittsburgh Pirates
It was a quiet winter in Pittsburgh, to be expected for a team still firmly in the midst of a rebuild. The Bucs made a couple low-cost additions on the margins, but it’s another evaluative season for the front office. The biggest move for the franchise: a Spring Training extension with a player they expect to be an integral part of their next core, one that marked the largest investment in the organization’s history.
Major League Signings
- C Roberto Pérez: one year, $5MM
- 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo: one year, $4MM
- RHP Heath Hembree: one year, $2.125MM
- LHP José Quintana: one year, $2MM
- CF Jake Marisnick: one year, $1.3MM
- 1B Daniel Vogelbach: one year, $1MM (deal also includes 2023 club option)
- C Andrew Knapp: one year, $800K
2022 spending: $16.025MM
Total spending: $16.225M
Trades and claims
- Claimed RHP Eric Hanhold off waivers from Orioles (later outrighted off 40-man roster)
- Claimed CF Greg Allen off waivers from Yankees
- Traded C Jacob Stallings to Marlins for RHP Zach Thompson, minor league RHP Kyle Nicolas and minor league CF Connor Scott
- Claimed LHP Aaron Fletcher off waivers from Mariners
- Claimed RHP Adonis Medina off waivers from Phillies (later traded to Mets for cash considerations)
- Acquired 2B Josh VanMeter from Diamondbacks for minor league RHP Listher Sosa
Extensions
- Signed 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM extension (deal also includes 2030 club option and potentially buys out four free agent seasons)
Notable Minor League Signees
Notable Losses
- Steven Brault, Trevor Cahill, Wilmer Difo, Phillip Evans, Erik González, Kyle Keller, Chad Kuhl, Colin Moran, Cody Ponce, Chasen Shreve, Jose Soriano, Stallings
The Pirates are still firmly in rebuild mode, one of a handful of teams that enters the 2022 season with no real hope of contending. As with Ben Cherington’s first two years as general manager, the Bucs entered the winter looking as if they’d be one of the league’s least active teams. They again shied away from any long-term commitments to players outside the organization, but Pittsburgh was comparatively more aggressive this time around than they’d been in recent seasons. After spending just $7.25MM in free agency over the prior two winters combined, the Bucs exceeded $16MM in open market expenditures this year to bring in a handful of veteran role players.
The first of those acquisitions was southpaw José Quintana, a former All-Star who has fallen on hard times. Quintana hasn’t posted a full season out of the rotation since 2019, as he missed the bulk of the 2020 campaign with injury and was kicked to the bullpen last June after a dreadful beginning to the year. The 33-year-old had by far the worst ERA of his career (6.43) in 63 innings with the Angels and Giants last season, surprisingly struggling to throw strikes. Yet he also missed bats at a personal-best rate, and he’s a perfectly sensible flier for a modest $2MM.
Quintana steps into an otherwise very young rotation as a veteran stabilizer. The Bucs hope his acquisition will turn out as last winter’s Tyler Anderson signing did. Anderson was a competent starter for the season’s first half, took the ball every fifth day, then netted the Pirates a couple prospects at the trade deadline. Quintana will need to be better this season than he was in 2021 to attract interest from contenders, but there’s little harm in trying.
Not long after bringing Quintana aboard, the Pirates worked out a one-year deal to keep Yoshi Tsutsugo around. Pittsburgh signed the former NPB star after he was released by the Dodgers in August and watched him turn in the best month and a half of his MLB career down the stretch. That late-season showing earned Tsutsugo a few million dollars and an everyday first base job, as Pittsburgh then jettisoned their previous lefty-hitting first baseman Colin Moran. The Pirates couldn’t trade Tsutsugo last fall (and his impressive showing was probably in too small a sample to merit much interest anyhow), but he’d intrigue contenders if he continues to perform at that level in this season’s first half.
Small pickups aside, the Pirates obviously remained amenable to moving veteran players off the roster. The most straightforward trade candidate of the bunch was catcher Jacob Stallings. The 32-year-old has blossomed into a Gold Glove defender and is still plenty affordable, but his age made him an unlikely long-term fit in Pittsburgh. The Bucs moved him to the Marlins for righty Zach Thompson and prospects Kyle Nicolas (a 2020 second-rounder) and Connor Scott (the No. 13 overall pick in 2018) shortly before the lockout.
Structurally, that deal made sense for both teams. The Marlins were aggressive in rebuilding their lineup in an effort to contend immediately. Pittsburgh grabbed a pair of minor leaguers and a depth arm in Thompson who had been squeezed out of Miami’s loaded starting pitching mix. The Pirates have more opportunity to take a look at Thompson, a 28-year-old who was available in minor league free agency a season ago but pitched to a 3.24 ERA with a solid 11.7% swinging strike rate as a rookie. He didn’t accrue a full year of service in 2021, meaning he can be controlled another six seasons.
With Stallings gone and backup catcher Michael Pérez previously outrighted off the 40-man roster, the Pirates had to bring in two catchers. The starter is former Cleveland backstop Roberto Pérez, inked to a $5MM deal shortly after the Stallings trade. Pérez doesn’t offer much at the plate, but he’s a gifted defender who was lauded for his work with Cleveland’s young pitchers. As with Quintana and Tsutsugo, he could be a deadline trade candidate, but Pittsburgh may value his intangible presence enough to hold onto him all year rather than recoup a minimal prospect return. Just before Opening Day, the Bucs brought in former Phillie Andrew Knapp to back Pérez up.
Pittsburgh took a couple more low-cost shots to round out the infield. First baseman/DH Daniel Vogelbach signed for $1MM after being non-tendered by the Brewers. He adds an on-base oriented lefty bat to the mix and is controllable for multiple seasons; Vogelbach has a cheap club option in 2023 and would be arbitration-eligible in 2024. Also controllable for multiple seasons is lefty-swinging utilityman Josh VanMeter, who was acquired from the D-Backs in Spring Training. Pittsburgh gave up a minor league pitcher to land the out-of-options VanMeter, suggesting they believe he’s capable of sticking on the active roster all year (and maybe beyond).
VanMeter joins young players like Diego Castillo, Hoy Park and Michael Chavis in the mix at second base. He could also see some time in the outfield, where holdovers Ben Gamel and Cole Tucker have jobs. The Pirates claimed Greg Allen (who’ll miss the first couple months of the season with a hamstring injury) and signed Jake Marisnick to fill out the depth on the grass.
The left side of the infield figures to eventually be manned by two of the Pirates’ most promising young players. Ke’Bryan Hayes will be around at third base for the long haul (more on that in a minute), while shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz is one of the sport’s most electrifying young talents. Cruz is opening the season in the minors after being optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis, a move that looked to be motivated by service time considerations. He doesn’t have much experience at the minors’ top level, to which the Pirates can point as justification. Yet it’s difficult to argue he’s not a better player than the light-hitting Kevin Newman already, and a non-competitive 2022 season should give the team plenty of time to live with any growing pains the 6’7″ Cruz experiences on either side of the ball.
Newman will hold down shortstop for now, as he has for a few seasons. The Pirates would probably be amenable to dealing him as well, although there may not be enough interest in a glove-only player to generate a ton of demand. It’s possible Newman just kicks over to second base or the bench whenever Cruz returns to the majors.
There’s no question, on the other hand, that rival teams would love to get their hands on star outfielder Bryan Reynolds. The switch-hitting Reynolds has been an excellent hitter in both full seasons of his MLB career. He’s drawn attention from teams like the Marlins, Mariners, Yankees, Brewers and Padres (and doubtless many more) since last summer’s deadline alone. Pittsburgh has maintained they’re more inclined to build around Reynolds than trade him, made all the more evident by the reported asking price they’ve floated in talks.
Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reported last month that the Pirates wanted both Kahlil Watson and Max Meyer, each of whom are generally ranked among the game’s top 75 or so prospects, in any Reynolds deal. Pittsburgh’s demand from the Padres hasn’t been reported, but Dennis Lin of the Athletic wrote that San Diego considered it “prohibitive.” Cherington more or less confirmed the Bucs would only move Reynolds for a king’s ransom last week (link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “Bryan is a really good player,” Cherington said. “He’s also young, and we’re not winning yet. You combine all those things, teams are gonna call. … Those calls are incoming calls. They’re not outgoing calls.”
Those calls will keep coming, at least unless the Pirates and Reynolds work out a long-term deal. The team controls him through 2025 via arbitration. Reynolds reportedly turned down an extension offer from the Bucs prior to the 2021 season, and he told Mackey that talks about a long-term deal never seriously arose this spring. The sides figure to revisit discussions at some point down the road, but for now, they’ll presumably proceed through arbitration with their star outfielder.
That’s a path they won’t have to take with Hayes, as they agreed to terms with their franchise third baseman on an eight-year extension on Opening Day. The deal guarantees him $70MM, setting a new high-water mark for a franchise commitment to a single player. Nevertheless, it’s a more than reasonable price to pay for essentially the entirety of Hayes’ prime. The deal buys out as much as four free agent years and could keep him around through his age-33 season. For a player who ranked No. 15 on Baseball America’s top prospects list heading into 2021, it’s a sensible investment.
Interestingly, Pittsburgh front-loaded the Hayes deal. That’s an unconventional tack for an early-career extension, which typically align with the standard year-by-year process of progressively paying players more later in the deal for what would’ve been their arbitration and free agent seasons. Instead, the Bucs will pay Hayes $10MM apiece in each of the next two years before paying him $7-8MM per season through the rest of the decade. That gets the young third baseman some noteworthy money up front while allowing the Pirates to keep a fair bit of cash in reserve for future seasons when they anticipate being more competitive.
Who’ll join Hayes as part of the core remains to be seen. Reynolds seemingly will, barring a Godfather-style offer from another team. The Pirates no doubt hope Cruz breaks through, while recent first-round draftees Henry Davis and Nick Gonzales are among the other hitters coming up the pipeline. Much of the attention will again be focused on the minor leagues, but the Pirates have a few arms in the majors trying to pitch their way into the long-term picture.
Mitch Keller and Bryse Wilson are former top prospects who have struggled thus far in their MLB careers. It very well could be a make-of-break year for both righties, but they should get another extended look in 2022. Thompson and JT Brubaker are older and don’t have the prospect pedigree of Keller or Wilson, but they’ve each flashed enough against major league hitters to intrigue. Roansy Contreras and Miguel Yajure each came over from the Yankees in the January 2021 Jameson Taillon deal and could be long-term starting options. Contreras, in particular, is a consensus top 100 prospect whom many evaluators suggest has mid-rotation upside. Not everyone in that group will develop, but the Bucs have plenty of innings to go around in hopes that a couple cement their places on the 2023 pitching staff.
That’s true of the bullpen as well, where Contreras and Yajure are currently stationed. David Bednar broke out as a late-game weapon last season and is controllable through 2026. Reliever performance is volatile enough the Bucs would probably still be open to trade calls on the hard-throwing righty, but he seems likelier to stick around for a few years. Veterans Chris Stratton and Heath Hembree — the latter of whom signed a one-year deal this winter after striking out 34.2% of opponents in 2021 — are more obvious midseason trade candidates.
In aggregate, 2022 will be another rough season for the Pirates and their fans. The club is still firmly in “evaluation” mode of the rebuild, although the hoped-for light at the end of the tunnel is coming closer into view. The time hasn’t yet come for the Pirates to make particularly meaningful pickups on the open market or via trade, but they’ve locked up Hayes as a key piece of the future and declined to move Reynolds for anything more than a massive return. Some of this offseason’s stopgap adds could be dealt away in the coming months, but the Bucs have begun to lay the foundation for what they hope to be their next competitive teams.
Pirates Sign Ke’Bryan Hayes Eight-Year Extension
April 12: The Pirates have now formally announced the deal.
April 9: The full breakdown of the deal, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is as follows: Hayes will earn $10MM in 2022 and 2023, $7MM in each of the next four years, followed by an $8MM salary in 2028 and 2029. The 2030 club option is worth $12MM and comes with a $6MM buyout.
April 7: The Pirates took a major step toward locking up their young core this afternoon, inking third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM extension, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. The deal, which represents both the largest guarantee ever given to a player with between one and two years of service time and the largest deal ever handed out by the Pirates, will keep Hayes in Pittsburgh through at least 2029. It also includes a club option for the 2030 season, the terms of which are not yet clear. Hayes is represented by The Ballengee Group.
The deal buys out three years of the third baseman’s free agency, which would have arrived at the conclusion of the 2026 season barring an unforeseen demotion. Hayes, who is entering his age-25 season in 2022, will now remain under team control through his age-32 (or age-33, should the Pirates exercise his option) season. While he could still be in line for a solid payday at that point should he remain productive, today’s extension is likely to cover the great majority of his prime years — meaning that his $70MM guarantee is likely to constitute a majority of his career earnings.
Since being promoted to the big leagues midway through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hayes has been one of the few bright spots for a moribund Pirates franchise, slashing a world-beating .376/.442/.682 across 95 plate appearances across 24 games that September. His numbers came back to earth in 2021, perhaps as a result of an early-season wrist injury that held him out of action for roughly a third of the year and sapped him of much of his power. In his short career, Hayes has posted a .280/.340/.442 triple-slash in 491 trips to the plate while playing high-end defense at third, winning the 2021 Fielding Bible Award for third basemen (edging out stalwarts Matt Chapman and Nolan Arenado).
While keeping Hayes (the son of long-time big-leaguer Charlie Hayes) around for the long term is sure to promote some optimism within the long-suffering Pittsburgh fanbase, few expect the Bucs to contend in the immediate future. After losing 101 games in 2021, GM Ben Cherington hardly re-loaded in the offseason, trading for infielder Josh VanMeter and signing first baseman Daniel Vogelbach, outfielder Jake Marisnick, and reliever Heath Hembree to low-cost free agent deals while trading starting catcher Jacob Stallings to the Marlins for right-hander Zach Thompson and a pair of minor leaguers. The club does have a series of high-end prospects on the horizon, however, including recently optioned 6’7″ shortstop Oneil Cruz and right-hander Roansy Contreras, both of whom are likely to see big-league action sooner than later. Second baseman Nick Gonzalez and righty Quinn Priester could also see the majors in 2022, while catcher Henry Davis (the top overall pick in the 2021 draft) is probably a year or two away.
Cherington’s success in locking up Hayes for the foreseeable future draws attention to questions surrounding the future of center fielder Bryan Reynolds, the other high-end talent on the Bucs’ active roster. Reynolds, who proved his 2020 struggles a fluke to the tune of a .302/.390/.522 triple-slash in 2021, is under club control through his age-30 season in 2025, reportedly turned down a number of extension proposals ahead of the 2021 season and didn’t re-engage with the club between the end of the season and the implementation of the lockout. He’s been the subject of endless trade rumors — he’s been directly linked to the Padres and Marlins this offseason — but Pittsburgh’s asking price is (understandably) sky-high. Even if they continue to go year-to-year with Reynolds (presently a Super Two, he’ll earn either $4.25MM or $4.9MM in 2022, depending on the outcome of an in-season arbitration hearing), the Bucs can expect their All-Star outfielder to play alongside their high-end up-and-coming talent for at least a few years before hitting the open market.
Indeed, while Hayes’ extension gives the Pirates the kind of cost certainty small-market clubs crave (as well as the potential for a boatload of surplus value), it isn’t likely to change their contention timetable. Even while competing in the NL Central, where the Cubs appear to be engaged in a mini-rebuild and neither the Brewers nor Cardinals seem to be interested in pushing all their chips in just yet, Pittsburgh isn’t likely to host October baseball for a few years yet.
That said, the unpredictability of prospect performance cuts in both directions, and the Pirates may have the sort of high-end prospect depth to take a big step forward as soon as 2023 — particularly if Cherington gets the go-ahead from ownership to add some payroll. At present, RosterResource projects the club to carry an Opening Day payroll of just $45MM (the lowest in Major League Baseball), and with almost nothing besides the Hayes extension committed beyond 2022. For a fanbase that hasn’t seen a meaningful game since losing the 2015 NL Wild Card Game (and still haunted by the 1992 NLCS), knowing the Bucs will hold onto their star third baseman for the bulk of his prime is likely the best news they’ve heard in a while.
{Note: Hayes left this afternoon’s game against the Cardinals with an apparent hand injury. Murray tweets that Hayes’ extension is still subject to a physical. Murray reports that Hayes suffered only a “very minor” cramp, and there’s no indication it’ll have any bearing on the long-term deal.}
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pirates Recall Roansy Contreras
TODAY: The Pirates officially called up Contreras prior to today’s game, while Underwood was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain.
APRIL 8: The Pirates are planning to recall pitching prospect Roansy Contreras, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Reliever Duane Underwood Jr. left yesterday’s game against the Cardinals with right hamstring discomfort, and the Bucs are opting to add another arm to the staff. Contreras is already on the Pittsburgh 40-man roster.
Contreras is among the most promising pitchers in the Pittsburgh farm system. Acquired from the Yankees in the Jameson Taillon deal last winter, the righty broke out with an excellent first season with the Bucs. While he missed some time with a forearm issue, Contreras made 12 Double-A starts and pitched to a 2.65 ERA in 54 1/3 innings. The Dominican Republic native punched out a stellar 34.9% of batters faced against a 5.5% walk rate, earning a bump to Triple-A and then the majors late in the year.
Along the way, the 22-year-old impressed evaluators. Each of Baseball America, FanGraphs, The Athletic and ESPN slotted Contreras among the game’s top 100 prospects this winter, with FanGraphs placing him inside their top 50. He draws praise for a fastball that averaged north of 96 MPH in his big league debut, as well as a pair of breaking balls with decent control. FanGraphs suggests he could soon develop into a mid-rotation starter.
It’s not clear how the Bucs will use Contreras, or if this latest promotion is for good. He’s in his second of three minor league option years, and Pittsburgh could send him back to Triple-A Indianapolis in short order. The Pirates drew some criticism for optioning top shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to start the season. Like Cruz, Contreras picked up two days of big league service time last year but has extremely little experience at the minors’ top level.
Latest On Pirates, Bryan Reynolds
Due to the 99-day lockout this winter, a significant number of arbitration cases remain unsettled as the season begins. One of those is Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds. With the player filing at $4.9MM and the team at $4.25MM, a $650K gap exists between the sides. While some teams have made exceptions this year to the game’s otherwise-pervasive file-and-trial policy, it appears the Pirates would like to stay true to that without setting up a midseason fight with their best player. According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “the team has been pushing to sign Reynolds to at least a two-year deal.”
Reynolds, 27, is entering the arbitration system for the first time. That means his 2022 salary will echo down the road, since he’ll also be arbitration eligible for the 2023, ’24, and ’25 seasons. A two-year deal would at least provide the Pirates with some cost certainty. Plus, Mackey’s sources say owner Bob Nutting does not like the optics of going to an arbitration hearing with Reynolds.
A recent example of what the Pirates appear to be aiming for happened with the Dodgers and Walker Buehler. The club had exchanged figures with Buehler in January ’21 and were facing an $850K gap, but instead hammered out a two-year, $8MM deal to buy out his first two arbitration years without affecting the team’s control over the player, going to a hearing, or violating the file-and-trial policy.
Reynolds generated plenty of interest on the trade market this offseason, with the Padres and Marlins among those recently connected. Pirates GM Ben Cherington recently said to Mackey, “Those calls are incoming calls. They’re not outgoing calls.”
Yesterday, the Pirates announced the largest contract in franchise history, an eight-year, $70MM extension with third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Reynolds reportedly turned down some extension offers from the Pirates prior to the 2021 season. His price can only have risen since, significantly beyond that of Hayes. Reynolds told Mackey in February of this year that he hadn’t heard anything from the Bucs prior to the lockout.
Mets Acquire Adonis Medina, Designate Yennsy Diaz For Assignment
The Mets have announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Adonis Medina from the Pirates in exchange for cash considerations and optioned him to Triple-A. To make room on the 40-man roster, fellow right-hander Yennsy Diaz was designated for assignment.
Medina was signed by the Phillies as an international free agent back in 2014 and caught the eye of some prospect evaluators, being labeled the 84th best prospect in the game by Baseball America in 2018. However, he struggled against the competition in the upper minors and was designated for assignment on December 1st, when the Phils signed Johan Camargo. The lockout followed shortly after that, meaning Medina floated in DFA limbo for over three months.
After the lockout was done, he was claimed by Pittsburgh but only lasted a few weeks as a Pirate. Earlier today, the Bucs signed Jake Marisnick and sent Medina back out onto DFA limbo. Now a Met, Medina will head to Triple-A to serve as rotation depth for a club that already has concerns in that department. Jacob deGrom went on the IL today and isn’t expected back for over a month. Max Scherzer has a tight hamstring that prevented him from taking the ball on Opening Day, though it seems like he will avoid the injured list for now. Last year, Medina mostly pitched in Triple-A, making 17 starts for 67 2/3 innings of 5.05 ERA ball. His ground ball rate was good at 45.7%, but the 18.5% strikeout rate was lacking.
As for Diaz, he came to the Mets just over a year ago as part of the Steven Matz deal. He split his time almost evenly between Triple-A and the majors, not showing anything especially impressive in either setting. His 5.40 ERA in the big leagues was over a full run better than his 6.75 Triple-A mark. His walk rate was around 11% at each level. He did put up a 24.7% strikeout rate in Triple-A, but just 18.8% in the bigs. However, he could still garner interest from clubs, given that he’s just 25 years old and has an option year remaining, meaning he can be stashed in the minors as depth.
Pirates Sign Jake Marisnick, Designate Adonis Medina For Assignment
APRIL 7: It’s a big league deal for Marisnick, according to the club’s transactions log at MLB.com. Fellow outfielder Greg Allen has been placed on the 60-day injured list with a left hamstring issue in a corresponding move. Pittsburgh also designated righty Adonis Medina for assignment to create room on the 40-man for catcher Andrew Knapp, who signed a one-year deal
APRIL 6: The Pirates have agreed to a deal with free-agent outfielder Jake Marisnick, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). Marisnick, a client of Reynolds Sports Management, was in camp with the Rangers but became a free agent yesterday.
Marisnick, 31, split the 2021 season between the Cubs and Padres, batting a combined .216/.286/.375 through 198 trips to the plate. The longtime Astros outfielder has never been known for his offensive prowess, however, and instead provides the bulk of his value with the glove and on the basepaths. Capable of playing all three outfield positions, Marisnick boasts a whopping 75 Defensive Runs Saved and an impressive 41 Outs Above Average in 4929 career innings in the outfield. He’s also swiped 77 bases in 105 tries (73.3%).
Details on the signing aren’t yet clear, but if it’s a big league deal, Marisnick will give the Bucs a true fourth outfielder and a right-handed-hitting complement to lefty-swinging left fielder Ben Gamel — something they’d previously lacked. Marisnick can also back up any of the team’s current outfielders should they need a breather, and he’s an ideal option to come into the game as a late-inning defensive replacement or pinch-runner in a key spot.
Jordy Mercer Announces Retirement
Veteran infielder Jordy Mercer took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that he’s retiring after a decade-long career at the big league level.
“Thank You baseball!” wrote Mercer. “Thank you for the opportunity and love you have given me. I hope I loved you back just as much. Thank you to the ones that have supported me, especially my family every step of the way. It’s time!! Excited for the next chapter.”
Mercer, 35, was a third-round pick out of Oklahoma State University by the Pirates back in 2008 and made his big league debut with Pittsburgh four years later in 2012. He logged just 68 plate appearances over 42 games and didn’t hit much as a 25-year-old rookie. However, Mercer seized the Pirates’ starting shortstop role the following season when he slashed .285/.336/.435 with eight homers, 22 doubles and a pair of triples in 395 plate appearances.
Over the next five seasons, Mercer was a constant in the Pirates’ lineup and in their infield. From 2013-18, he racked up 2928 plate appearances over 779 games while batting .257/.317/.387 with 54 home runs, 145 doubles, 14 triples and 13 stolen bases. That steady play at shortstop for the Buccos earned him a one-year, $5.25MM deal with the Tigers in free agency during the 2018-19 offseason.
Mercer managed just 74 games in his first season with the Tigers thanks to a pair of quadriceps strains that resulted in multiple stints on the injured list, but his overall production was sound when healthy. In 271 plate appearances, he smacked nine homers and 16 doubles while batting .270/.310/.438. He returned to the Tigers on a minor league deal but was immediately selected to their big league roster in July once the season was finally able to get underway. Mercer appeared in just three games with the Tigers before clearing waivers, electing free agency and signing with the Yankees, for whom he played another six games that season.
Last winter, Mercer inked a minor league deal with the Nationals and, by the end of Spring Training, had played his way onto the big league roster. Quadriceps and calf strains again hampered him in 2021, however, and Mercer was limited to just 46 games and 127 plate appearances as a National, during which time he slashed .254/.307/.364.
That brief stay in D.C. proved to be the final chapter of what wound up being a ten-year career at the MLB level for Mercer. He’ll head into retirement with a lifetime .256/.315/.386 batting line, 66 home runs, 173 doubles, 15 triples, 796 total hits, 330 runs scored and another 308 runs driven in. He may never have been an All-Star, but Mercer was a solid regular for several years in Pittsburgh who was able to celebrate three postseason berths (2013-15 with the Pirates) and suit up for 950 Major League games — all while topping $20MM in career earnings.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pirates To Sign Andrew Knapp
The Pirates are set to sign Andrew Knapp to serve as their backup catcher, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Knapp, who’s spent the past five seasons with the cross-state Phillies, was in camp with the Reds this spring but was granted his release recently after being informed he wouldn’t make the roster. Knapp is repped by Apex Baseball.
Knapp, 30, was long one of the Phillies’ more highly ranked prospects and even cracked Baseball America’s Top 100 list (No. 96) in the 2015-16 offseason. However, while he had a solid rookie season at the plate and enjoyed a productive stretch of 89 plate appearances during the shortened 2020 season, he’s yet to consistently deliver average or better production in the Majors. Through 827 MLB plate appearances, all coming with the Phillies, Knapp is a .214/.314/.322 hitter. He’s drawn a walk in 11.9% of career plate appearances, and while a good chunk of those have come batting eighth in front of the pitcher, Knapp has walk rates north of 11% even when batting sixth and seventh in the lineup.
Defensively, Knapp has drawn roughly average ratings for his ability to block pitches in the dirt, but his 19% caught-stealing rate and framing marks at both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus check in below average. Knapp does have a vastly superior 31% caught-stealing mark in parts of six minor league seasons, however, and he’s a career .262/.335/.381 hitter at the Triple-A level.
The Pirates traded catcher Jacob Stallings, one of the sport’s premier defensive players, to the Marlins this offseason in a deal that netted them right-hander Zach Thompson and prospects Kyle Nicolas and Connor Scott. Pittsburgh quickly turned around and signed free agent Roberto Perez, another high-end defender but one whose bat has dropped off in recent years while dealing with a series of thumb and hand injuries.
Knapp will give the Bucs an experienced backup to Perez, likely pushing non-roster options Michael Perez and Taylor Davis to Triple-A Indianapolis to begin the year. Of course, 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis is viewed as the catcher of the future for the Pirates, but the former Louisville star will still need a couple years of development time in all likelihood.