Pirates, Bryan Reynolds Unable to Avoid Arbitration; Hearing Likely

According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Jason Mackey, the Pirates and Bryan Reynolds did not agree to terms on arbitration, making a hearing all but a sure thing. MLB Trade Rumors projected Reynolds for a $4.5M salary for 2022.

The sides seem to be headed for an arbitration hearing as the Pirates philosophy of “file and trial,” meaning they set a hard deadline on the arbitration exchange date, which happened to be on Tuesday this year. At the hearing, an arbitrator will side with either the Pirates or Reynolds salary requests.

Reynolds filed for $4.9M, while the Pirates filed for for $4.25M, a difference of $650K.

Just because the Pirates have historically been a file and trial team doesn’t mean the two sides won’t be able to find some common ground at some point, though as they say, history repeats itself. Additionally, if the Pirates and Reynolds were to agree to a contract extension, the arbitration hearing would not take place; though that scenario is purely speculation at this time.

This is Reynolds’ first year of arbitration eligibility. Unlike most players who go through arbitration three times, Reynolds will be arbitration-eligible for four seasons as a super two player.

The Pirates previously avoided arbitration with the rest of their arbitration-eligible players — Kevin Newman, Ben Gamel and Chris Stratton.