Bryan Reynolds Is Carrying the Pirates Right Now

Bryan Reynolds is riding a 12-game hitting streak right now, and in the month of June, his OPS is over 1,000.

We've seen him heat up around this time of year in the past, but this is maybe the most important year of his career because this is the most important year the Pirates have had while he has been with the team.

And whenever you look at the number of injuries they have on offense and the question marks they have on pitching, it's coming at the most opportune time.

Good morning and welcome to OffBeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf, and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bryan Reynolds hits in jail.

He always has.

Last year was the exception, and I think it cemented that last year not a lot was going right in the first half of the year.

He had the shoulder injury early.

He didn't really get his footing whenever he did get back into the lineup every day.

It was a problem for this team that they didn't have top of his game, Bryan Reynolds.

There were a lot of problems with that offense, and a prime Bryan Reynolds season wasn't going to fix it.

But it was one of many issues that they had.

So Reynolds went to work this winter.

He pretty much immediately out of the gate, you noticed that he was taking better at bats.

That he was having a better start to the year in 2026 than he did in 2025.

And then June rolls around.

And Reynolds pretty much always hits in June.

In fact, I went to StatHead.

I pulled up the top June performers in franchise history among guys with at least 200 plate appearances by OPS.

You've got Brian Giles, whose OPS was 1,002.

You've got George Granham, who just seems to find a way to always be part of these lists.

Whatever was going on at the height of the live ball era in the late 20s, early 30s, he was a big part of it.

Ralph Kiner, 992 OPS.

And then fourth is Bryan Reynolds with a 954 OPS.

This is a good month generally for hitters in general because they hit, the weather heats up, they have those early season yips out of the way.

June's usually a favorable month, but Bryan Reynolds has shown that he is one of the best in this month in franchise history.

And in his performance in 2024 in June, I think was a big reason why he was selected to the All-Star game that year.

Even whenever you look at his season stats, they weren't quite as flattering, but whenever the All-Star teams were selected, there was no question.

He was one of the best outfielders in the game and he is in a similar spot right now.

I wouldn't be shocked if he does end up getting selected to the All-Star game.

Amazing how much changes in a week or so whenever I did that one podcast where it's like, is Paul Skenes's only going to be the All-Star?

Reynolds, I feel, is very deserving of it right now.

He's been a face of this franchise for some time.

I think it would be a good fit for him to get that nod.

We'll end up seeing.

But what's more important is this is a Pirates team that needs the spat.

The way that he carried them against the Athletics earlier this week, where he pretty much single-handedly won that first game with those home runs.

where they were down early, but just kept chipping away, had some big swings, put up a couple crooked numbers.

Pirates end up stealing a game on the road.

Then he has a good series in Colorado, even though he gets scratched on Friday with that, groin discomfort.

He's still able to come off the bench, delivers a big hit.

He starts the next game.

He has a couple more hits on Sunday.

He is maybe not 100% right now, or, with the off day Monday.

I'm sure he's trending in a much better direction right now.

But he just kept hitting.

And there's a lot of storm clouds around this team right now.

The biggest being Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin are hurt.

And you can make a very legitimate claim that's your top left-handed hitter and your top right-handed hitter.

And both of them are on the injured list.

And I'm pretty sure we're going to be seeing Konnor Griffin play ball in the not-so-distant future.

Probably be a rehab assignment first and then being called back up.

But he'll come back up.

And we'll see Oneil Cruz at some point in July.

But right now, with this stretch that they're on right now, it is imperative that this team finds a way to keep its head above water.

And I don't know if they do that right now, if Bryan Reynolds doesn't have the road trip that he just had.

If he doesn't have the June that he just had.

Or that he is continuing to have.

Because there's still another week left.

What's just as important, though, is I can't realistically say, oh, he has to keep these numbers going throughout the year.

But that drop-off that he had in 2024 after the All-Star break, after the calendar turned to July, that played a part in how that team did not reach its ultimate goal.

2025, not having him going, it's a part of the reason why they didn't reach their ultimate goal that year.

2026, there's a lot riding on this year.

There's a very legitimate claim that this might be the most talented roster the Pirates will have in the Paul Skenes era.

There's a very legitimate claim.

Because you don't know what's going to happen to Brandon Lowe, or if you could find a way to replicate that production.

Anyway, you don't know if you're going to have an All-Star worthy Bryan Reynolds.

You don't know if you're going to have Oneil Cruz, who before the injury was on pace for like a 30-30-40 season.

He was playing like he deserved All-Star consideration.

You don't know if Ryan O'Hearn is going to be the same guy.

You don't know if your starting pitching is going to be the same.

This is maybe the most talented roster, just from a pure talent standpoint, that we have seen in Pittsburgh since either 2015 or the years immediately following those wildcard teams.

They have to have something to show for it.

They have to find ways to win games, and Reynolds has played a big part in that right now.

he's hitting, he's fielding, he's robbed a couple homers this month.

We've seen him on the base paths over the course of the year, how he runs.

It's what this team needs.

Whenever they extended him to a then-franchise record contract in 2023, it was a line-in-the-sand type of contract.

Where his first couple years, everything was like, oh, do you trade him?

Do you, try to rebuild, get pieces for him?

It was like, no, this is the type of guy that you keep to help build, to be part of that winning nucleus, and you try to win with him.

This is why they extended him.

This was a year that he might not have been in Pittsburgh otherwise.

Knowing that he needs to deliver.

And he has so far.

But this is the hardest part of the season, and they need him to continue to carry this offense.

We're going to take a quick break.

We'll be right back.

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I want you to think of all of the frustrations the Pirates have had this year against left-handed starting pitching.

Like that Kyle Freeland start on Friday.

They should have just crushed him.

But they didn't pitch, or they didn't hit.

They've had a hard time hitting left-handed pitching.

So I looked at, like, who are the chief culprits here?

It's not Bryan Reynolds.

He has an OPS over 1,000 against lefties this year.

That big walk-off that he hit the previous homestand.

The walk-off home run.

He did it batting right-handed.

He is produced on both sides of the plate.

So whenever I say, Oneil Cruz is hurt, their best left-handed bat is out of lineup.

You know who becomes their best left-handed bat?

It's Bryan Reynolds.

Whenever Konnor Griffin gets hurt, and I say, well, their best right-handed bat is out of lineup.

You know who their best right-handed bat is now?

It's Bryan Reynolds.

I would be pretty firm to say that he is the best hitter in their lineup right now.

He has been the best offensive producer they've had this season.

And it's in large part to what he has done the previous couple of weeks.

But he still has produced the whole year.

And if he can provide enough defensively, like those first couple of weeks were pretty brutal.

But since then, he's been average-ish, if maybe not a hair above.

You take that.

You take that.

You take whatever he produces offensively.

And you charge ahead.

There are other people who are going to contribute to this offense.

the Lows, the O'Hearns.

But we have seen that whenever Bryan Reynolds doesn't hit, traditionally, the Pirates don't hit that well.

And whenever you have a month that you're starting pitching is very much in question at the moment, and the bullpen has just been bad, downright bad, you need that offensive production.

This has the feel that for the next couple weeks at least, at least until this offense gets healthy, at least until the trade deadline comes around and maybe the Pirates add a couple arms.

This team goes as far as Bryan Reynolds can take him.

Right now, he has three war, according to baseball reference.

Season's half over.

He is right now on pace for the best season of his career.

Now, we, I fully get, we are looking at, we are extrapolating that data as he is at his normal high point of the year.

That he doesn't tend to replicate those June numbers in the back half of the season.

And that's understandable.

And I don't think it's fair to ask for him to have that 1,000-whatever OPS and ride 12-game hitting streaks the entire rest of the way.

But he needs to find a way to contribute at a higher level than we maybe have seen a couple years in the past.

And I think there should be some confidence that he can do that.

He is swinging a really hot stick right now.

And yeah, it coincides with the time of year that he usually does get hot.

But I don't see any reason what he's doing right now can't continue in some form to July, to August, to September.

And that's really where this year is going to be determined.

Those 2024 Pirates fell apart in August.

Those 2023 Pirates really, they were done come July, in July.

Back half of the year is going to define this team.

And if Bryan Reynolds is the guy who is leading the charge right now, you look to him and say, okay, how long can you keep this rolling?

Because this team needs it.

They extended him in 2023, wanting him to be part of that nucleus, being one of those faces of the rebuild.

And here they are at the precipice of getting out of that rebuild stage and being a legitimate contender.

Bryan Reynolds is going to have to be a big reason why.

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