Perrotto: Leverage Shifts in Bryan Reynolds Trade Talks (+)
A general manager’s job in any professional sport is never easy. That goes even more so for baseball.
Being a GM is basically a lifestyle. Pardon the cliché, but It’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year.
A prime example was the Pittsburgh Pirates trading Josh Bell to the Washington Nationals on Christmas Eve in 2021. Or the Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers executing a near-meaningless trade last Saturday night on New Year’s Eve involving a player who had been designated for assignment.
Seattle Mariners vice president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto is the most prolific trader among the current-day executives. I asked him a few years ago if he ever shuts his cell phone off.
Dipoto chuckled before answering Christmas morning. That’s the only day during the year he makes himself unavailable. Even then, it’s only for a few hours.
Everyone thinks they can be a GM. Yet there are few people who could handle the relentless time demands.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington is no different than anyone else in his job. However, he had an extra layer of difficulty added this week.
Word has leaked out that the Pirates and Bryan Reynolds were $50 million apart in talks about a long-term contract extension. It is why Reynolds asked to be traded last month, the day before baseball’s Winter Meetings started in San Diego.
With that gap now public knowledge, it almost certainly hurts Cherington’s leverage in making a good trade for Reynolds.
For openers, the Pirates have been downplaying the idea of even trading Reynolds. The company line is they expect Reynolds to have a big 2023 season for them.
However, $50 million is a gap the size of the Grand Canyon when it comes to the Pirates and every other team in the major leagues knows it.
Keep in mind the largest contract in Pirates’ history is the $70-million deal they signed third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to for eight years in April. The second-largest contract is the six-year, $60-million deal Jason Kendall signed in advance of the Pirates moving into PNC Park for the 2001 season.
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It took 22 years between franchise-record contracts for the low-budget Pirates. TWENTY-TWO!
So, to even think Reynolds can bridge a $50-million gap with the Pirates borders on preposterous.
I continue to believe Reynolds is not the type of person who will cause problems if he is still with the Pirates when spring training begins on Valentine’s Day. His professionalism has never been questioned throughout his four seasons in the major leagues.
However, with seemingly no chance of reaching a contract agreement, an urgency now exists for the Pittsburgh Pirates to trade Reynolds. And that means some lost leverage for Cherington.
Reynolds still has three full seasons of club contractual control. Thus, the soon to be 28-year-old switch-hitter’s trade value will never be higher.
The number of teams who have expressed interest in Reynolds is in the double digits. Yet the Pirates have been holding out for a blockbuster deal that would infuse as much more young talent into their rebuilding process as possible.
Right-handers Quinn Priester and Luis Ortiz both hold promise, but the Pirates need more high-end pitching prospects. In talking with teams who have talked with the Pirates, the sense is Cherington is looking for one top-of-the-line pitching prospect along with a second pitching prospect and two more prospects.
No team has been willing to meet the Pittsburgh Pirates’ demands so far. Now that other teams know he is bluffing, Cherington will have a tougher time getting exactly what he wants.
Perhaps Cherington will take a bit of a gamble and wait until the July 31 trade deadline and hope teams get into a bidding war for Bryan Reynolds. Or maybe he will just trade Reynolds before spring training, take the best deal he can get, and be done with it.
Either way, Cherington figures to be on it before 365/24/7 until the situation is resolved. Even with lessened leverage.