Bryan Reynolds named Pirates’ 2024 team MVP

PITTSBURGH – There’s always uncertainty of how things will turn out when a team trades for a Minor League player. They’re called “prospects” for a reason, after all. And in Bryan Reynolds‘ case, he came to Pittsburgh in 2018 in exchange for the face of the Pirates’ franchise, Andrew McCutchen. It was a risky gamble for the organization.

After a couple of All-Star nods (including one this season), a long-term extension and the distinction of being the Pirates’ best player over the last six years, it’s safe to say that things have turned out pretty well for Reynolds.

“I couldn’t have imagined that,” Reynolds said. “I could’ve hoped for it. I just remember being fired up that I got traded, that I got out of San Francisco and got into a good organization that would give me a chance. I couldn’t ask for anything more. It’s worked out, worked out great.”

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America named Reynolds the recipient of the Roberto Clemente Team MVP Award. He’s hit .276 with a .787 OPS in his sixth big league season and racked up 22 home runs, 29 doubles and 85 RBIs, with Baseball Reference valuing him at 3.3 WAR.

There were of course heights during that campaign, including a 25-game hitting streak in June, but for the most part, Reynolds’ season was defined by his consistency throughout. While he has slowed a bit at the end of the season, he has driven in double-digit runs every full month of the year and posted an OPS that at least matched the league’s average in that given month through August.

“He’s had a really good year,” said manager Derek Shelton, who at multiple points this year referred to Reynolds as the team’s best player. “He posts every day. Yeah, I would say it’s been a really solid season.”

It’s the third time Reynolds has been named the team MVP, the others coming in 2021 and 2022. Since the award was established in 1973, the only other Pirates to win three times are Dave Parker, Andy Van Slyke and McCutchen (who won six times).

“Any time you get in the same sentence as those kind[s] of players, it’s pretty special and pretty cool just being mentioned with them,” Reynolds said.

Additionally, Paul Skenes was named the winner of the Steve Blass Award for the team’s best pitcher, and McCutchen earned the Chuck Tanner Award for the player who is most cooperative with the media. Skenes was also the runner-up for the Roberto Clemente Award, while Mitch Keller and Rowdy Tellez were second for the Blass and Tanner Awards, respectively.

The pairing of Reynolds and the Pirates has gone swimmingly, but there is still one thing they have yet to do in his time in Black and Gold: Make the playoffs.

Veterans on the team didn’t shy away from thinking that the 2024 Pirates were close to competing, and for four months they were in the thick of the Wild Card chase. However, a collapse in August, which included a 10-game losing streak, effectively ended those playoff chances, and odds are that they will finish with a final record within a game or two of last year’s 76-86 mark.

“We had some good moments,” Reynolds said. “We had some not good moments. We’ve just got to build for the playoffs next year, just have that mindset in the beginning and throughout.”

Going into 2025, Reynolds is going to again be projected as one of the team’s big bats. There’s also going to be heightened expectations on the team around him. That’s Reynolds’ belief too, as he sees his team closing the gap to what they need to do to be a contender.

“We were in it later than we’ve been since I’ve been here,” Reynolds said. “It just kind of exploded a little bit. We’ve just got to be consistent and try to win those one-run games because if we would’ve done that, we’d probably be in a little bit of a different situation.”