The Yankees signed Aaron Judge to a nine-year, $360 million contract that will keep the American League's Most Valuable in pinstripes for life. Judge earned that contract through his leadership on the field and in the clubhouse and of course for his Triple Crown numbers plus let's not forget the regular season AL home run record in 2022. Judge isn't a superhero, an Avenger of sorts, but rather a guy who simply put in the time and work and it paid off in a big way. Could the same be said for Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds? Not quite. In fact the asks from the Reynolds camp are simply unrealistic. No, I am not comparing Reynolds to Judge by any measure. What I am simply saying is this: you have to earn your reward by putting down the numbers and behaviors to demonstrate your worth. Reynolds just has not done that yet.
"While sources say the Pirates offered over $75 million for six years with no team options, Reynolds’ camp originally mentioned the $168 million, eight-year deal Matt Olson received as a comp (though their request was lower than that)," reported the New York Post on Friday. Although the Pirate outfielder hit a career-high 27 home runs in 2022 and in 493 career games has a .281 BA, .842 OPS and 127 OPS+, he's not worth $168 million nor would the Yankees be willing to give up the number of prospects the Pirates have inquired about in their talks.
As NJ.com reports, "The Yankees wouldn’t even consider trading (Oswald) Peraza straight-up for Reynolds. Peraza is their long-term solution at shortstop, where he’ll partner with second baseman Anthony Volpe. I do think a package of Everson Pereira and right-handers Will Warren and Clarke Schmidt is something the Yankees would at least consider, However, I’m not sure that would be enough for the Pirates."
The piece to consider here is the Pirates really don't want to trade their All Star outfielder. He is part of their three year rebuild plan. So any deal they make will need to have equal to better value than their current 27-year-old slugger.
"The Yankees have a glaring need in left field and have remained an obvious fit for Reynolds, a switch-hitter with all-around ability and three years of team control remaining. He has been an in-demand trade target for several years now and Pittsburgh has maintained a high asking price throughout. At this point it feels like the Yankees (and other teams) are simply waiting until that asking price drops. New York's in-house left field options are Aaron Hicks and super utility man Oswaldo Cabrera," reports CBS Sports.
Reynolds could be a good fit and provide complimentary offense to the Yankee lineup. He, Harrison Bader and Judge will also make for a superior outfield—with the left corner clearly an Achilles Heel for the Yankees currently. Is he worth the asking price? No. Could the Yankees find their guy in-house this spring and wait until the trade deadline for a guy like Reynolds? Maybe, if he is still there. Other teams like the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Guardians, and Los Angeles Dodgers are interested in closing the gap in their outfield as well.
It will be interesting to see what happens here with Reynolds and available free agents as we move one week closer to Spring Training 2023.
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--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof
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