It’s easy to understand why Bryan Reynolds wants to be traded. Like everyone else, he must look at the Pirates and see a cheap organization that isn’t willing to pay the going rate to its top players. He has to see a team that is coming off the franchise’s worst three-run stretch in almost 70 years. He has to see no future with Bob Nutting as the owner.
What’s harder to explain is why Carlos Santana signed with the Pirates. I’m guessing he had no better alternative. No player with his numbers on the back of a bubblegum card would come here if he had other options.
Getting Santana, who will be 37 on April 8, is a can’t-lose situation for the Pirates, even if his one-year contract is worth $6.725 million, roughly the same as Reynolds’ deal for 2023. Only Ke’Bryan Hayes, at $10 million, will make more next season. Even if Santana fails, it won’t cripple the franchise long-term, although that surely would sicken Nutting. I mean, how bad can it be? Will the Pirates lose more than they did the past three seasons when they were a combined 142-242?
If Santana happens to play well and have a good first half, Ben Cherington can flip him at the trade deadline for prospects. You know how much the Pirates love acquiring those. They have been doing it for years and years, always building for a next season that never comes.
The Reynolds situation is much more troubling.
The Pirates will look weak if they cave to Reynolds’ wishes and move him for anything less than a blockbuster return. I’m not sure another club will offer fair value in a trade knowing Reynolds has put the Pirates in a difficult predicament. Beyond that, what will stop other players from asking out if that precedent is set? I imagine there are plenty of players in the organization who would love to get away from the doomed franchise and join a team that gives them a legitimate chance to win.
But the Pirates also will be in an uncomfortable spot if they don’t trade Reynolds. They will have to learn to make the best of it with a player who wants out. I know Reynolds is a professional, too much of a pro to not give his best effort. He’s also smart enough to realize he’s playing for his next contract. He knows he has to put up numbers to get the long-term contract he wants from another team. But, still, will there be any kind of a negative impact? At least subconsciously? And how will it play in the clubhouse?
The Pirates were quick to say they have no intention of trading Reynolds — not at the Winter Meetings this week in San Diego, not any time soon. But even their statement seemed a bit ominous, at least to me. It stopped far short of saying, “We plan on signing Reynolds to a contract that will keep him in Pittsburgh for several more years, maybe for his entire career.”
Instead:
“With three years until he hits free agency, Bryan remains a key member of our team. We look forward to him having a great season.”
My translation:
“We know we’re not going to do a fair, long-term contract with Reynolds. The only way we’ll keep him is if he gives us a ridiculous, team-friendly deal the way Andrew McCutchen did all those years ago. Our intention is to get what we can out of Reynolds at a relatively low price before we trade him on our terms and on our time table. That could be as early as the next offseason, when he will be eligible for arbitration that will send his salary soaring far beyond what we want to pay him. This is how the Pirates make news in the offseason.”
It’s an old story, right?
A tired story.
Sadly, a never-ending story.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: December 6, 2022, 10:30 a.m.