According to Robert Murray, the Pittsburgh Pirates and outfielder Bryan Reynolds have agreed on an eight-year deal worth $106.75M. The deal runs through the 2030 season, with a team option for 2031. Murray also says that there is “a form of no-trade protection”.
BREAKING: Outfielder Bryan Reynolds and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in agreement on an eight-year, $106.75 million contract extension with a team option for 2031, according to sources familiar with the deal. It includes a form of no-trade protection.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) April 25, 2023
Murray also has the year-by-year breakdown of the trade here:
Reynolds’ deal is the richest deal in Pirates history and does not include an opt-out. Here’s a breakdown of the deal, per source:
$2M signing bonus
2023 $6.75M
2024 $10M
2025 $12M
2026 $14M
2027 $15M
2028 $15M
2029 $15M
2030 $15M
2031 team option for $20M ($2M buyout).— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) April 25, 2023
The deal includes a signing bonus and a buyout of the 2031 option if the team doesn’t pick up that year.
Reynolds got off to a fast start this season. He’s currently hitting .294/.319/.553 in 22 games. Over five seasons with the team, the 28-year-old has a .282/.359/.484 slash line in 515 games. He has accumulated 14.0 WAR in his career.
As noted by Murray, this is now the richest deal in Pirates history.
If Reynolds continues to produce at his current standards, then this will be a very team-friendly deal that also has Reynolds comfortable for life. He likely could have made more playing through until free agency, but that’s assuming he didn’t see any drop-off over the next 2+ seasons. Now it’s all a moot point, as the Pirates have him locked up until at least 2030.
Here’s an added tidbit on the deal from Jon Heyman:
Reynolds got a 6-team no-trade list. First no-trade of any sort Pirates gave since 2006.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 25, 2023
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Been trying to hold off longer but Extension Day seems like the right time to bring up that I had said to the laugher and enjoyment of others that I had a gut feeling that this offseason was going to be different and Cherrington was going to move the rebuild to the Big Club and the FA were going to be of better quality and the roster was going to improve and the Bucs would be fun again…That felling was not those burritos that I was eating ………….Told ya!!!! 🙂
I like imagining the reaction at ESPN and MLB.com. “First the win streak and now this. When can we get back to covering the Yankees and Dodgers?”
It’ll also be nice not to see articles in July about how the Pirates should trade Reynolds to the Yankees for some B- prospect.
But mostly it’s nice to see this put to rest so we can just watch Reynolds play.
ESPN and MLB Network has to be pissed that the Red Sox have turned into a hodgepodge of nothingness and they can’t push the Yanks vs Sox garbage every other day. The Dodgers are on the opposite days.
Isn’t nice to finally cover a team that acts like it’s serious about competing? I so seriously hope to eat crow for all the bad things I’ve said about Nickles when he finally proves he’s willing to spend what’s necessary to win.
You lose the alliteration but with the Hayes and Reynolds extensions, is it too soon to bump him up to “Dimes” Nutting?
Keller, Keller, Keller please
Woo-hoo! Very happy about this for Reynolds, for us fans who like watching Reynolds, and for what it says about Nutting’s willingness to spend.
I hope the Pirates did the right thing but I have followed the Pirates through eight decades so it hard for me to not be skeptical of anything they do. I do hope my fears are not justified. I like Reynolds a lot and wish him and the Pirates the best.
Stop what?…Wishing the Pirates and Reynolds the best?
The Pirates through the years made me a skeptic, I wasn’t born that way. I root for them every game but I have learned not to go overboard when they have some success because as Scarlett said “Tomorrow is another day”
I know brother, I’m the same way…but if you can’t push those thoughts out enough to enjoy this moment, it prolly ain’t gonna get much better!
OT but has anyone watched any of Outman from the Dodgers? Think I’ve seen about 15 minutes of Dodgers this year and seen this guy hit 3 bombs.
Tonight should be great test for Oviedo.
Great day to be a Bucs fan. Heck, great month to be a Bucs fan. The big question now: how quickly can BR regrow his Porn-stache. Fangraphs probably has the stats – no doubt he hits better with it! Let’s go!!!!
Also, I Just love Reynolds. Anyone questioning his intensity, just watch him after a strikeout. Dude is a damn good baseball player.
Ben Cherington has worked miracles on me
It’s a strange day when, as a Pirates fan, I feel compelled to focus on the positives (and set aside, for now, any concerns). I love the message being sent by the team and by Reynolds with this deal. Much more so than with the Shelton extension.
I think the primary targets for the message the team is sending are the young guys like Keller, Contreras, Cruz, Castro, Bae, and then down through the system to Endy, Tank, Solo, Bubba, Termarr, etc. If you produce, you can get paid here and be a part of a winning team. That has to be very motivating for them.
Let’s go Bucs!
It’s a very club friendly deal in my estimation based on some of the deals we have seen the past 2 or 3 months. It gives Reynolds what he wanted – financial stability for he and his family.
I have to think the types of FA’s brought in by BC for 2023, and the blend of commitment to youth and developing a winner was the reason why Reynolds wanted to continue being a part of the Pirates and the community.
It’s only club friendly if Reynolds continues to play as he has for duration of the deal. Management is taking substantial risk by going 8 years guaranteed.
The pirates window seems to be opening and nutting is spending some money just like he did during the last pirate run. Bob certainly isn’t some great owner by any means, but he is also not as bad as most people in Pittsburgh make him out to be.
this deal doesnt change the fact that the current payroll for 2024 projects in the 45 million range, give or take, as of now. And it doesnt change the fact that he could run pathetic 70 million dollar payrolls for the next 10 years, even with Reynolds locked up. Not to mention, they could trade him tomorrow if they wanted to.
this isnt *really* Bob spending. We wont know if bob is really spending until they have a payroll above $110 mil, 120mil , 140mil, whatever threshold you wanna set.
HOPEFULLY it means the spending is coming though.
Shohei Ohtani would nestle in quite nicely and get payroll right around 100 😛
Which, can we even call 100 “spending” yet?
This! I know baseball is a business to Nutting but I’m sure he can spend more than 70 mil payroll.
Dead serious, Nutting can and should go after Ohtani. This team’s payroll is too low to not go after him.
Pirates not on short list to sign Ohtani
https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-won-t-sign-with-pirates-c262801478
Shohei obviously has not heard about the Pierogi pigout that is in the works in his honor. He will relent 🙂
It’s an old story though. Just saying the Pirates – or Nutting, to be exact – can afford to offer good money even with the payroll rising with Reynolds’ contract in the future.
Why not lock up Keller?
How much of the current club do you want committed together through their mid-30?
Bold prediction: The next Pirate to be extended will be Andrew McCutchen. For two more years after this one.
Could be a low AAV 1 and 1, I could see it
ALL of the 16-7 crew. Rich Hill for the next decade!
“Crafty 50-year-old lefty Rich Hill raised his record to 11-4 last night against the Charlotte Knights, mixing his 60 mph curveball and 45 mph changeup with a four-seam fastball that touched 75 to throw 7 shutout innings…”
#actually 50-yr old Rich Hill has evolved into a knuckleballer and will throw 200 innings for another 25 years.
Job’s done!
Won’t be surprised if they do.
I am sure they have discussed it.
THEY DID IT
Those last few years could get ugly? Will we see another Frankie-like trade? Players rarely get better after 30-31.
But, hey, it ain’t MY money, 😁😁😁
Ya, I’m kinda surprised they didn’t front load the contract so it’s more moveable, or at least palatable, by the time he hits 33-34
He’ll likely decline but if he can play at a 2-3 WAR-level into his mid-thirties, then this deal works.
But that’s not really a decline.
If you throw out the 2020 season, he’s averaged a little over 4 fWAR in his three full seasons, so I’m considering ~2.5 WAR to be a decline. If you want to toss out the high and low years, then 3.5 WAR seems about right and about what he’s on target for this year. So not a big decline, but still a decline.
…drug massively upward by his one outlier season.
I’m just sayin brother, let’s be clear-eyed about the likely reality of these deals and not shit all over them when they inevitably struggle towards the end because we had unreasonable expectations!
Still smarting from how Cutch was treated on his way out…
There’s nothing that feels quite as bad as when a fanbase turns on a great player for having the absolute gall to decline faster than anticipated.
Let alone at very much the rates we should have anticipated!
Huge news. This is fantastic, and worthy of big respect in both directions. The Pirates spent in a really, really meaningful way, and Reynolds committed long-term to back up his claims of wanting to stay in the Burgh. Feels like they both met in the middle from their original difference between 76 and 120-something.
While people are calling it team friendly, I think it’s pretty fair when we consider his age and that a lot of these $15M seasons are coming in his mid-thirties. If you account for what he would have made in arbitration and average the rest over the course of 3 free agent years instead of 5, it’s pretty much free agent value for his current production. For taking on the risk of guaranteeing that money ahead of time, the Pirates get his age 34 and age 35 seasons more or less for free. I think all parties would love to see him mashing at 35, and if so, yeah, this becomes very team friendly. But given his age and production at this stage of arb, Reynolds was in a relatively unique position. This seems fair.
PS Kudos to him for coming out of the gate amid a failed trade request and stalled extension talks, and nevertheless being a consummate professional, tearing the cover off the ball to start the season, and demonstrating beyond question his value to this franchise while helping them to a 16-7 start. This deal was never inevitable and I think the great record and hot start by Reynolds made it all the more appealing for the team to lock him up long term, and for him to want to stay on a squad that’s having fun and shows a promising future.
I agree that it’s a fair deal given his age, and some of the recent deals that comparable players have signed.
Oh, and part of that “consummate professional” comment is in reference to his willingness to switch to LF without complaint. It’s where he fits best but had the potential to feel like insult to injury after requesting a trade and being denied
The opposite of the way Cutch handled it.
Opposite of the way Bonds handled his arbitration disappointment
I could not agree more about your point. Reynolds is not a center fielder and his willingness to move back to left field was great for the team. Great respect to him for not crying about it and making it a big deal.
#NiceJobBob
I’m sure there will be naysayers out there, there always are, but this might be the best news any Pirate fan could possibly want. Not only is it good for Reynolds and the near future of the team, but it appears to signal that ownership really wants to win and is willing to part with some of it’s money to do so. Atta boy Bob, now start saving up to sign Cruz and (I hope) Crews to long extensions in the next few years.
Massive, massive respect here for Bryan Reynolds.
This clearly shows the opt out was a chickenshit move by his agent designed to place all risk on the club and demonstrate no commitment from Reynolds to actually stay.
Kudos to the club for being smart enough not to get duped, and even more kudos to Reynolds for having the integrity to step in and tell his agent to work towards what he wants.
Maybe his way of saying “show me some real commitment to winning” and maybe now how he thinks they have.
”Real commitment to winning” = years + dollars.
Yes, not just to him but to others surrounding him.
Just curious what (if anything) is used a barometer for value per WAR these days. I know years back it seemed something like 1 WAR was worth 8 million on the market but not sure if that number has moved up or down over the years? Thanks.
BleacherReport calculated it as $5.7M/WAR for position players and $6.9M/WAR for pitchers (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10063324-inside-the-rising-cost-of-winning-in-mlb-free-agency)
Thanks you David!
I quibble with their method on a number of fronts, and I think that underestimates the $/WAR by a fair bit, particularly for starting position players. You just can’t compare a $1.5M one year deal for a 4th OF who will give you 0.5 WAR with a 9 year, $360M deal for Aaron Judge. Just doesn’t scale linearly. And because Bleacher Report’s analysis is entirely backward looking, they are definitely NOT calculating the $/WAR for NEW contracts being handed out, but for contracts signed in prior years. The post-COVID inflation isn’t close to being fully baked in, since most of those deals 1) are backloaded and 2) run for several years more.
Pitching is also skewed by relievers, who generate very little WAR but the elite ones are paid well in excess of what a similar WAR-producing hitter would make.
I like Fangraphs’ method – they only count free agent players projected to generate 2+ WAR, which weeds out the cost-effective bench guys and the cost-ineffective relievers. They have $8.5M for 2022, which feels more right than Bleacher Report.
A singular league-wide value also has absolutely zero relevancy to team building, which is what you hear from every single person who actually works in the game.
The Yankees should obviously be willing to pay more per win, and the Pirates won’t possibly have a chance of succeeding unless they’re paying less.
This is an entirely academic exercise.
Sure, the Pirates and Yankees aren’t even bidding on the same pool of players. I still think it’s a useful metric, with the caveat that certain teams just don’t participate in it – but for those that do, the observation post-hoc is this is what you can expect to pay for everyday talent.
..which is entirely academic in the unfortunate reality that clubs such as the Pirates MUST find undervalued assets if they have any chance of succeeding.
I hear you brother, it ain’t fair, but we can talk ourselves into a GM getting “expected value” all the way to perpetually losing seasons.
Valid. I didn’t take the time to do a lot of digging and haven’t yet found anything more recent than 12/2021 from FG – do you have a link?
Same link you found, but it included 2022, since it’s forward looking.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/what-are-teams-paying-per-war-in-free-agency/
To my knowledge, they haven’t updated for 2023, but I don’t think it’s an annual feature on the site. Looks like they did one for 2020, 2018 and before that it was 2014.
Thanks SBRO
I’ve always kinda thought it was…still 8? But I’m wrong about everything in life, so now using this knowledge, you’ll be able to know what number it is NOT worth.
Haven’t perused the comments and someone else may have brought this up…
There are now 3 teams that have not signed a player to a 7-figure contract. Can you name them without looking it up?
I was pretty surprised by one of the 3 teams.
Don’t you mean 9 figure contract? More than 100,000,000?
Good catch, Pike. I messed that one up.
Was it the white sox? I think benny this offseason was their biggest contract ever at 5/75
Yep. Chi Sox, oak & KC
A VERY TEAM-friendly deal…
wow! great job to both the player & the organization. Great news b4 lunch. Ok, enough celebrating, extend Cutch! haha jk, but not really
that’s the amount of money i thought would be fair for a 7 year deal, let alone 8.
I guess good for them for finding common ground. Hope the pirates get another good 6 years out of him and good for Reynolds on getting guaranteed generational upon generational upon generational upon generational upon generational wealth.
Hayes and Reynolds in place. Hank and Cruz by October. Ohtani this winter.
It’s really a 7/$100M, he was already under contract for $6.75M this year.
No, Ohtani at the deadline to start Game 1 of the playoffs.
Still working on the Pierogi sale it was mentioned about acquiring Ohtani a couple of weeks ago 🙂
wonder what/who that would cost in prospects?
no doubt endy would be included and probably one of Bubba or Solo
Bucs will throw in Mercer.
thank go we already threw him out
or is it threw him up?
In theory, I wish this money was going to Cruz, but how can any Pirates fan be upset with this signing? The proverbial $100 million glass ceiling has been shattered, and Bryan Reynolds is as good a player as any to do it.
I wonder how much, if any, Cutch had to do with Reynolds changing his position on the opt out clause? Reynolds seeing how beloved Cutch is by the fans, and how it has coincided with a resurgence in the play of the team very well may have inspired him to want to stay here long term.
I predict a statue outside the stadium for him after the end of the contract.
I was actually wondering how much the Shelton extension had an impact on his mindset. While I don’t fully trust the guy to be a winning team manager, he seems truly respected as a manager among the players.
You could absolutely go to Cruz right now and I bet he bites. He knows first hand how quickly you can be seriously injured. Frankly he’s lucky it’s a broken leg and not worse. If they flashed 8/70 right now I’d bet he’d ask where to sign. They could also go to Keller and offer 6/72 and I bet he would sign that too
I think maybe the clubhouse atmosphere, which is certainly impacted by Cutch, and the quick start they got off to this year may have helped a good bit. It really looks like a team friendly deal for sure.
summed up my thoughts as well
Considering they’ll only be paying Key and Reynolds $20M-$25M combined during Cruz’s arb years, there’s plenty of space left for Cruz
I still wonder how much he may want. Considering I think that John D. Mentioned awhile back he was the only player who would not sign his tender this spring and he had issues with his Dominican winter team on his contract there too, he may not be such an easy extension.
Well, one way to possibly work around that is start winning, lock up other players, and his feelings may shift to wanting to stick around and be a part of the turnaround. Maybe.
If her has Cole’s mentality, it will be all about the Benjamins. Cole had no intention with extending with any team, even Houston. Wanted to go with the winner of his bidding war Depends upon what Oneil truly wants. If he really wants to test the market and maximize his value, The Pirates and about 2/3 of the league will not have a chance at him. If that is what he wants and want to really hit the market and earns the right to be the subject of a huge bidding war, could never blame him if that is what he wants. Just hope he does not do what Cole did and take off every bit of Astro logoed stuff and put on Boras Corp swag during the postgame of the World series that his team loses.
Yeah, we’ll see what happens. In that event, not really much you can do.
No, not much about 2/3 of the teams can do,. Don’t blame the guys that chase the contract. Hopefully, he matures and in doing so, he decides it is better to be in a smaller city and will not be under a microscope from the moment he signs and fans and the local media quickly turn on athletes when they sign huge and have a couple of bad games
In the end, it will come down to what he is really seeking.
They have other monies that can go towards Cruz. Rest assured.
Now would the perfect time to try to lock up Cruz, in my opinion.
Dang I wish we could green some comments up in here. IYKYK.
AIN’T NO STOPPIN’ US NOW!
Great day for the franchise. I thought that the deal died with the opt out. Now let’s take 2 of 3 from the Dodgers.
DK said that these negotiations rarely fail once the team and player agrees on the years and money. I’m glad he was right.
I’m with Robert! Sweep sounds better!
No!!!! SWEEP!!!!!
Really impressed. Lets go Bucs, whoo-hooo!
I like this deal. The Pirates pay Reynolds into his decline phase (through age 35), but they’re getting an enormous discount on his early 30s when he’d be likely to top 20M AAV on the open market – and that’s assuming he remains a fringe all-star 3-4 WAR guy and not the 6-WAR monster he was in ’21.
This is great- no opt-out, kinda the opposite with a no-trade clause. This is the pirates saying “hey, we want you here, we are committed this time”
Significantly, he wants to be here too.
Very reasonable makeup, gets him lifetime of money and shouldnt sink us or prevent us from putting together a team around him at any point.
Wow. It’s been a while since this was GIF’ed on here.
I know lol and I thought it was the right moment for it
It felt good to see. Thanks for adding to this magical moment. Last time I felt like this about the Pirates was when they signed Kendall to a 6 yr 60 million dollar contract back who knows when. Total opposite of “Operation Shutdown” Bell.
This looks like a deal the club can work with and around in assembling a good roster. I’m glad to see the sides found a place that works for everyone
Nutting did something!!! Turns out opt-out *can* be removed if more money is offered!!!
That sounds fair for both sides. I don’t think Brian will ever be “elite” (cool if he were to develop into that) but he is solid upper quartile and this contract pays at that level.
No, let the facial hair grow Brian!! Cut the beard and the hitting went away…..
Needs to be the stache
Man, having the best dream ever. Bucs have the best record in the NL and Reynolds just agreed to the 8 year extension with no opt out. Don’t wanna wake up!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only thing better is if Oneil Cruz went to Hogwarts and got his ankle healed instantly.
Stay away from those muggle nutters who cut people open!
Reparo!
Nonono, you use Skele-Gro