All you need to know about the length of Bryan Renolds new contract that he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
According to report, outfielder Bryan Reynolds and the Pittsburgh Pirates have reached an agreement on an extension of their contract that will pay a total of $106.75 million over the course of eight years. This will be the richest contract in the history of the franchise, which comes at a time when the Pirates are off to one of the best starts in team history.
Following a breakdown in negotiations between the two parties during spring training as a result of Reynolds’ request for an opt-out, discussions have just taken up again. According to sources, a restricted no-trade clause was helpful in getting the deal over the finish line.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were one of just four major league teams who had never signed a player to a contract for more than one hundred million dollars prior to the completion of this transaction. The other three teams were the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago White Sox, and the Oakland Athletics.
After being acquired from the San Francisco Giants in a deal prior to the 2018 season, Reynolds had requested a trade from Pittsburgh throughout the offseason. The Pirates had initially acquired him from the Giants.
The 28-year-old Reynolds, who has accumulated 14 wins above replacement over the course of his five-year career, will have the ability to block a trade to six teams of his choice annually, but he will not be given the option to opt out of the deal. The contract will begin this year and will include a further eight years with a team option for the year 2031. After the 2025 campaign, it was anticipated that he would become a free agent.
This season for the Pirates, Bryan Renolds is off to a fast start at the plate. The fact that he is batting.294,.319, and.552 while also leading the team with 18 runs batted in, being tied for the club lead with five home runs, and stealing three bases has helped fortify the Pirates, who now have the best record in the National League (16-7) and are second only to the 20-3 Tampa Bay Rays. Oneil Cruz, the shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, shattered his left leg while sliding into home plate, so the team is without its other cornerstone player.
Reynolds spent most of his first four seasons playing center field, but he has shifted his focus to playing left field more frequently this year. He was at his absolute peak in 2021, when he was named to the All-Star team of the National League, hit.302/.390/.522, and accumulated 5.9 wins above replacement. Reynolds has played in 515 games throughout the course of his career and has a batting average of.282/.359/.484 with 79 home runs and 257 RBIs.
The agreement, which was originally reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is comparable to contracts that Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins and Kyle Seager of the Seattle Mariners have already inked in the past. It will pay him $10 million next year, $12 million in 2025, $14 million in 2026, $15 million each year from 2027 through 2030, and has a $20 million option with a $2 million buyout for 2031. Additionally, it contains a signing bonus of $2 million on top of the $6.75 million he was slated to collect this year.
Only Ke’Bryan Hayes and Josh Reynolds are now signed to contracts that will keep them with the Pirates beyond the 2023 season. Hayes’ 70 million dollar deal from last year was the previous record for the largest contract in franchise history. As they attempt to break out of a four-year slump in which they haven’t won 70 games in a season, they may consider extending Cruz’s contract and signing right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller to new deals.
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