Bryan Reynolds

Opening Day came and went without any resolution on the long-running extension talks between Bryan Reynolds and the Pirates. Negotiations reportedly hit a snag when Reynolds’ camp pursued an opt-out chance following the 2026 season. The parties were apparently both amenable to tacking on seven years and $100MM to cover the 2024-30 seasons but didn’t reach a compromise on Reynolds’ desire to be able to test free agency midway through the deal.

The opt-out wasn’t the only issue, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports the Bucs were also resistant to including a no-trade clause. It’s not clear how adamant Reynolds is about receiving at least limited no-trade protection, though that’s perhaps another hurdle the sides will have to clear.

Sorting through the opt-out clause seems a tougher challenge than settling on no-trade rights. The Bucs already control Reynolds via arbitration through the 2025 campaign. A post-2026 opt-out would only ensure Reynolds sticks in Pittsburgh for one additional season. On a contract with guaranteed salaries running through 2030, that provision would give the All-Star outfielder relatively early flexibility to test the market while leaving the team with some extended risk in the event Reynolds suffers and injury or underperforms.

It’s not clear if the Bucs would be amenable to including an opt-out later on in a potential extension. Doing so after 2027, for instance, would ensure the club tacks on at least two more seasons of control. That might not be all that appealing to Reynolds, however. The switch-hitter is already 28 and won’t hit free agency until after his age-30 campaign even if he proceeds through arbitration. A post-2027 opt-out wouldn’t allow him to explore the market before he’s headed into his age-33 season, when the chance for a long-term free agent pact might’ve passed regardless.

Given the challenge of finding an opt-out date that could make mutual sense, Heyman writes the Pirates are open to “(moving) money around” in extension talks. Whether that’s merely restructuring the $100MM offer — which would’ve reportedly been backloaded — to get Reynolds more money up front or involves a boost to the overall guarantee isn’t clear. In any event, it’s apparent the Pirates aren’t closing the door on continued negotiations.

General manager Ben Cherington confirmed as much in a conversation with the Pittsburgh beat earlier in the week (link via Kevin Gorman of the Tribune-Review). “We’ve never had any team policy about (a deadline) on Opening Day,” Cherington said. “Out of respect to players and the team, we try to keep those conversations to the offseason and Spring Training. But if it makes sense for all parties to have a conversation during the season, there’s no policy against that. We’re open to that. … He’s playing well. From his play, it looks like he’s focused on the season. We’re focused on supporting him. If there’s anything more to talk about, we’ll keep that between him and us.”

Reynolds’ camp had reportedly pushed for an extension to be done by Opening Day. It’s not uncommon for teams or players to work beyond self-imposed “deadlines” of that nature if the sides are close enough a deal isn’t far out of reach. (For instance, Manny Machado and the Padres signed his extension a little more than a week after Machado’s initially proposed cutoff in February.)

As Cherington pointed out, Reynolds hasn’t seemed at all fazed by the absence of a Spring Training agreement. He’s off to a .340/.352/.720 start through 54 plate appearances. His five home runs are tied for third in the majors, one behind the six longballs of Pete Alonso and Ryan Mountcastle.

The Pirates are making a renewed effort to work out a long-term deal with Bryan Reynolds, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). According to Heyman, the club would prefer to have an agreement in place by Opening Day, though it’s unclear how likely that is.

Reynolds addressed the situation briefly this afternoon, saying there wasn’t any major development on the extension front (via Justice delos Santos of MLB.com). The two-time All-Star indicated he shares a desire to not have talks linger into the regular season.

Whether the Pirates would extend or trade Reynolds has been a question for quite some time. He’s come up in offseason and deadline trade rumors for over a year. Pittsburgh has held firm on a huge ask in discussions with other teams but hasn’t seemed to make much progress about keeping him past their allotted window of arbitration control, which runs through 2025. There appeared to be a tipping point in early December. Extension discussions stalled and Reynolds requested a trade around the Winter Meetings.

Pittsburgh brass reiterated they weren’t planning to lower their trade price in response to Reynolds’ wish to move. They ended up him holding him throughout the offseason — without any public indication they came particularly close to a deal — and the switch-hitting outfielder walked things back as camp approached. In mid-February, he told reporters he was still open to extension talks, saying he’d “been pretty open the past few years that (his) No. 1 choice would be to sign an extension in Pittsburgh.”

While it doesn’t seem there’s been any substantive movement, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the sides’ relationship has generally improved over the past couple months. Mackey suggests there’s at least some optimism among those involved that a deal could come together, though it’ll obviously depend on the extent to which the parties budge on financials.

Previous reports have suggested the Pirates offered a six-year deal that’d guarantee somewhere in the $75-80MM range. Meanwhile, Mackey writes that Reynolds’ camp had sought an eight-year deal worth $134MM. That leaves a gap in the $50-60MM vicinity to bridge. A six-year deal would run through Reynolds’ age-33 season, assuming it overwrote the $6.75MM salary he’s presently set to receive. An eight-year pact would take him through age 35.

8:04am: Reynolds spoke with reporters this morning about contract talks with the Pirates, and said the team has made no new offers thus far (per Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic). At this stage, Reynolds has not set a deadline for a potential deal to get done.

7:59am: The future of Bryan Reynolds has dominated Pirates-related headlines ever since his trade request early on in the off-season. Speculation looks set to bleed into the spring now, and it likely won’t stop until the Pirates either hammer out an extension with their star outfielder or trade him.

According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates’ best offer to Reynolds was a six-year, $80MM deal, while the player was seeking eight years and $134MM — both of which would have represented a franchise record contract. While a $54MM gap is significant, owner Bob Nutting said in an interview with Mackey that the team is working hard to try and bridge that at the moment.

“We’d love to see Bryan as a long-term part of the team. The piece that I was most concerned about was his level of frustration in the sense that he felt disrespected by the team. If there’s a way we can bridge the gap, we’re working hard to do that. We’re continuing this week to work hard to do it. Bryan’s important. We want to do what’s right for him, for his family and for the team. We absolutely have respect for Bryan. We want to keep lines of communication open,” Nutting said.

The trade request came on the heels of that impasse in contract negotiations, but Reynolds has still maintained his preference is to stay in Pittsburgh if the right deal can be found. On that front, however, it does appear to be make-or-break time. Another strong season of production would likely push an extension next winter well out of Pittsburgh’s price range, and while the Pirates could still likely get a strong package in return for Reynolds next winter, his dwindling years of control and increasing arbitration salary will make it trickier to justify the bounty they might receive this season.

Reynolds can be a free agent following the 2025 season, which would not appear to line up perfectly with the Pirates’ projected window of contention, which may well be just opening around 2024-25. As such, an extension which keeps him in Pittsburgh beyond 2025 or a trade for younger players with more years of control makes plenty of sense. Reynolds, 28, has established himself as one of the game’s top outfielders in recent years. The switch-hitter has compiled 12.5 fWAR, averaging an excellent .281/.361/.481 line while belting 74 home runs over the past four seasons.

In any case, there seems to be little chance of the Pirates following the Padres anytime soon, and turning their small market payroll into one more resembling that of the game’s heavy hitters.

“It’s a model that we have belief in and have had success with. As we varied away from that model, which arguably we did in ’17, ’18 and ’19, it doesn’t work very well. I think we’re right at the brink of seeing success. I think what we’re continuing to do and what we have done is try to show discipline and make sure that we’re investing in the right places. I continue to look at baseball as one part of a much broader bucket,” Nutting said.

The Bucs’ payroll has ranked 30th, 30th and 28th in the past three seasons, failing to clear the $60MM threshold. The Pirates were at a similar stage of their rebuild in 2011-12, and were running out bottom-three payrolls in those seasons. As their window of contention opened, payroll more than doubled from 2012-15 (according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts) as the Pirates enjoyed a trio of playoff seasons.

Nutting’s brief but wide-ranging interview with Mackey also touched on the new collective bargaining agreement which was agreed upon a year ago between the league and the MLB Players Association.

“There’s no question the CBA contained several things that were not good for the Pirates and very few things that were excellent for us. You also have to remember there was no baseball going on. We had a real risk of losing the season. I felt a significant sense of urgency to get on the field. Could have had a protest vote. That’s not really who I am. I’m not sure it would be good for the team, and I don’t think it would be good for baseball,” Nutting said.

“It’s the single biggest issue facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Competitive disparity, revenue disparity and payroll disparity are all real challenges. I think it’s great [Commissioner Rob Manfred] is publicly talking about it. We simply can’t be here in the next cycle. We’ve got to see fundamental change in the economic structure of the game. I believe that we’re positioned to do it — not this year or next year but over the longer-term cycle.”