It'd appear, on the surface, that the Pirates are cornered into two options regarding Bryan Reynolds:
1. Trade him.
2. Force him to play.
I'm told this week, though, that the organization is focused far more on a third option, that being the original: Get him signed long-term.
No, there hasn't been any additional contact between the team and Reynolds' representation at CAA since the latter willfully leaked to the media the player's request to be traded. And that's understandable considering how peeved the team was about the leak, a tactic that agency's applied previously at the first sign of any offer it doesn't like. A cooling-off period's only common sense.
But even after all that, the Pirates very much still see their optimal scenario as keeping Reynolds. Meaning beyond the three additional seasons for which they already hold his rights through arbitration. At least 2-3 years into what'd be his free-agency years. (Hence, the original offer of six years and more than $75 million.) They already had every intent of keeping him through the arbitration period, and they saw the free-agency time as something that'd be of good value.
And yeah, they very much recognize that Reynolds brings greater value than Ke'Bryan Hayes, something they'd told me as far back as last spring, which is why Reynolds was offered more money over a shorter term than Hayes' $70 million over eight years.
So, what's got to happen here?
Simple: Find a conference room -- or call or group chat -- then agree in advance that nothing leaves it without mutual agreement, then get down to details. It's not impossible. My understanding is that raising the total dollars into the $100 million range would restart the process with a rush. That's eminently affordable for an operation that hasn't spent worth a damn for half a decade now, and that'll expose to everyone at CAA that Reynolds' own preference would be to stay in Pittsburgh.
This is big-time doable. Get it done. All the rest will be long forgotten by the time position players report to Bradenton.
MORE PIRATES
• My source for Reynolds wanting to stay in Pittsburgh: Reynolds. Only a billion times over the past few years. Passionately. On the record and otherwise.
He's worn the uniform with pride, even in the face of endless losing over his three-plus seasons here. It shows with how dirty it is after every game. It shows with how he beams every time a young player shows up and does well, often seeking me out in the clubhouse to make sure I noticed. It shows with how, even when others have asked him why in hell he'd want to stay, he bites back.
Get it done.
For once, do the right thing.
• Know who else would like to keep Reynolds?
Bob Nutting.
Not guessing at that. He's been talking about it for two years now.
Now, all he's got to do to make that happen, of course, is get back to understanding, as he seemed to do several years back, that he stands to gain -- including financially -- far more by keeping the player than by losing even further trust with an already exasperated public.
• One way to convince Nutting, possibly, would be to remind him that his three most profitable -- that's profitable -- years as owner were 2013-15, the only playoff seasons in his tenure. Which is sorta how all this is supposed to work: Invest more money, make money.
Not guessing at that profitable thing, either, by the way.
• Why no PiratesFest this winter?
I've yet to get a complete answer, but the partial one -- from the team -- is that PNC Park's something of a mess in these months, with heavy construction that includes the installation of the massive new scoreboard. And if one recalls, the recent PiratesFests had been held right at the ballpark, affording fans the experience to tour the clubhouse, batting cages, etc.
Still seems terribly backward, but OK. Sure sounds like it'll be back next year.
• That'll be it for the starting pitching, I'm told, barring the usual barrage of Cody Ponce types as non-roster invitees.
• I've heard that David Bednar, Wil Crowe and other relievers have done plenty of communication/camaraderie-building this offseason. There's a big belief among the back-end guys in that group.
STEELERS
• Matt Canada's still here. No one needs me to tell them that, nor, for that matter, that every day he stays is another day closer to staying for good.
I've written this for two years now, but it bears repeating: Mike Tomlin really likes him. Likes how he handles business in the offices. Likes his demeanor with players. Likes his loyalty. And yeah, that can be an overriding factor on South Water Street.
• Arthur Maulet grasps that he won't be close to the Steelers' top priority at any point in the coming offseason. He's 29, he's got a year left on his two-year, $3.825 million contract, and the market tends to be thin for thirty-anything cornerbacks, as Joe Haden just learned a few months ago.
But he's been undeniably a pleasant surprise in his two seasons in Pittsburgh, where he was part of a 2020 training camp "no one expected me to win," as he told me this past weekend, and all he's done since then is blossomed into a two-year starter with respectable results at a position that'd been of significant need.
I'll leave this here, but Maulet would be more than open to sticking around well past next season.
• Safe to say the tight end room's about to look a little different in 2023, given the emergence of Connor Heyward and, above all, Zach Gentry's status as a pending free agent. And if the latter's had any dialogue with the team about staying, it sure didn't sound like it when he and I spoke this week.
"We'll see how it goes," he told me.
• I joked with Kenny Pickett that he wasn't even close to the Steelers' most improved player over the course of his rookie season, and he robustly agreed -- and pretty much finished my sentence for me -- when I said it was everyone in front of him.
"Those guys just got better every week," he'd tell me.
• Although I couldn't help but notice Mason Rudolph being the first one to bolt from the locker room within minutes of the game Sunday, I've also picked up on buzz that Mitch Trubisky might not be far behind him out that same door.
Trubisky's got a $10.6 million cap number for 2023, and that'd likely put him among the team's top 10 players if he's kept. If he's cut, that's a massive $8 million cap savings. Which, obviously, makes keeping him insane, at least from this perspective.
Add to that Trubisky not exactly hiding his dissatisfaction with losing the job to Kenny after a month and ... yeah.
I fully expect a new backup.
• Josh Dobbs remains beloved in this fold. All I'll say to that. Not anything I've heard, but be sure his showing this month with the Titans didn't hurt.
PENGUINS
• Both Ron Hextall and Brian Burke would welcome any opportunity at cap relief, I'm told, but neither's prepared to make a big move that'd make that situation moot on a mass scale. Which is to say, either they don't want to trade Jeff Carter and/or Brian Dumoulin, or they don't feel they'd have a taker, though it's tough to discern since those names never, ever come up in this context.
Regardless, no trade talks of any kind right now.
• They love those guys. Both of them. I'm not sure they'd get pulled if they turned around and started firing pucks on their own goaltenders.
• No contract extension talks yet involving Jason Zucker, who'll be a free agent at season's end.
• It's not that Mike Sullivan doesn't like Valtteri Puustinen. A few months ago in Boston, Sullivan and I spoke about Puustinen, and he spoke effusively of the young man, even adding that he and J.D. Forrest, the head coach in Wilkes-Barre, had multiple exchanges glowing about how ready he seems for the NHL game from multiple standpoints.
Thing is, if you can't kill penalties, you can't fit on this team's bottom six. Or really, any team's bottom six. And this team's top six has stayed remarkably healthy, highlighted by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin still not having missed a game. When anyone of the top two lines has been out, Danton Heinen's been plug-and-play. And after him in that pecking order is Kasperi Kapanen.
That's why Drew O'Connor keeps getting the call. He's on the PK down there.
Nothing to overthink. Nothing sinister.
• O'Connor does so much visible good on the forecheck that it's easy to praise him excessively. I'm guilty of it myself. But I can also share that management continues to wait on him to finish more. Because, even though he's now more two-way-ready than ever, he still profiles as a far more intriguing piece if he can elevate to top-six status. And that doesn't happen without numbers.
• There's a 0.00% chance Ty Smith's hanging around. Just the vibe I got at the arena this week. Cap casualty. Plus, see above regarding Dumoulin.
• Kapanen's so serious all the time now he's scarcely recognizable from the daddy's boy who was drafted here a few years ago. Been through quite a bit in his time here and Toronto, in his own weird way, so it makes sense. Maybe it's good.
• At the risk of mixing sports, which I seldom do, it's so refreshing to be around Sullivan when he loses. He hates it. As does Tomlin. They're miserable. They're irritated by everything around them. They appear to be capable of very, very bad things.
When one sees Derek Shelton that way, everyone can rest assured the Pirates will finally not be punting. And not a millisecond before.
• Have a wonderful weekend! Beginning with Winnipeg Night in Pittsburgh!
