Bryan Reynolds offers no complaints, no excuses.
Heck, in the face of a two-month slump at the plate and a 10-day stint on Major League Baseball's injured list in June for lower back inflammation, he's actually coming across as strikingly optimistic.
"It's coming," he was telling me this week at PNC Park before the Pirates' flight to Anaheim, Calif., where they'll open a three-game set with the Angels tonight. "I can feel it, for sure."
There was even a small smile in there.
Full context: He'd just put up another 0-for-4 in the 7-5 victory over the Guardians, albeit with an RBI in the pivotal seventh inning as a result of his all-out hustle to beat out what would've been an inning-ending double play. And actually, all five runs that inning followed that hustle, earning praise for Reynolds from Derek Shelton and his teammates.
But that wasn't what had Reynolds upbeat for the first time in a while. Rather, it was that he'd smoked -- and I mean smoked -- an earlier lineout, as well as several foul balls to the right side.
That'll sound like nothing to most, but it's always meant plenty to him. Because when Reynolds has ever dug himself a hole -- and he's in a deep one this month, slashing .143/.186/.214 with one home run and four RBIs -- he's always blamed, first and foremost, his timing. He loses his rhythm and, to borrow his own words, "It's like I completely forgot how to hit." Conversely, in turn, as soon as he starts banging the ball, particularly with a pull, he's well on his way back.
Now, fuller context: The combination of the IL stint, the work he's continued to do to ward off further back issues and the loss of his timing are literally the only reasons a player of this level of character would be slumping at the moment.
Yeah, it looks lousy that he smacked five home runs in the season's opening week, then signed the franchise's first nine-figure contract, then has only four home runs since. It looks like he took the money, got fat off it, got hurt, maybe even gave up. And to the best of my ability to gauge such stuff, it's even becoming a common sentiment among some in the fan base. It's beyond absurd.
If only one entry I ever write for Insider resonates with anyone, I hope it's this one. Because the same player I'd described for two years as honestly wanting to stay in Pittsburgh and be part of what's being built here ... is the same one who's working like hell right now to try to make a difference. No one has to believe me, but I know it's accurate. From multiple conversations with him and his teammates, plus one this week with one of his coaches. And that coach told me their toughest challenge as a staff has been to keep him out of the cages.
Watch his reply from earlier in the week when I asked, in general, what's changed for the team as a whole since that awesome April:
Feel free to misinterpret, as many did, but that's the furthest thing possible, in his case, from being disengaged or not caring. No, that's someone who hardly feels entitled to be speaking for the group at a time when he's contributing so little. And nowhere near what anyone, chiefly Reynolds himself, expects.
I'll share when I think someone's dogging it. Or milking their money. Or focusing on the wrong priorities. And this, my friends, ain't it.
Clip this, save it and keep watching. Those liners will straighten out soon enough.
MORE PIRATES
• No one with the team sees Jared Triolo's terrific start in Pittsburgh -- .311/.368/.344 through 17 games and 61 at-bats -- as an aberration. Certainly not at third base, where he was a minor-league Gold Glover, but also not at the plate. And that's mostly because Triolo maintained a .285/.367/.439 line through 1,229 minor-league at-bats. He's a bit above that now, obviously, but not by any bizarre margin. He's a contact guy now, just as he was a contact guy then. As Shelton told me, Triolo's "always looking to be aggressive, always ready to hit." I asked Triolo about that, and he replied, "If they throw it in my zone, I'm going to be ready to swing."
• No, he's not going to replace Ke'Bryan Hayes. Stop that at once. But that doesn't mean there isn't internal concern about Hayes' lingering back trouble. A couple years of that is no joke. Don't be surprised if that doesn't become the priority as far as the rest of his 2023 goes. For the team and for Hayes. He hates it.
• David Bednar's name will come up countless times between now and the Aug. 1 trade deadline, maybe more than that of anyone else on the roster. He's going nowhere.
• There's seldom any mystery when Quinn Priester looks good for a bit, bad for the next bit: He lets up on the fastball and gets too comfortable with the hammer curve. And the difference at this level, as Cleveland's lineup demonstrated the other night, is that they'll hammer that hammer curve upon second sight. I brought this up with Priester, and he replied, "I've got to be able to execute all of my pitches, but I know it's got to start with the fastball. Always."
• There are few sights in sports more unsettling than the face of a player getting summoned by the bench coach, as Yohan Ramirez was the other day by Don Kelly, to see the manager. Because after a game, there's almost nothing it could be for a bubble player like Ramirez beyond a demotion. Ramirez had just been laughing loudly at a joke from Yerry De Los Santos when he sat down and Kelly arrived ... at which point it'd appeared he'd seen a ghost.
• It was always going to be aimed at 2024. Nothing was going to alter that.
STEELERS
• Training camp formally opens next Thursday in Latrobe, Pa., and the same predominant theme will be in play now as it was a year ago: How much will Matt Canada control/restrict Kenny Pickett? The correct answer first requires the context that it was Mike Tomlin, not Canada, who cracked down at mid-season on Pickett's penchant for holding onto the ball too long. It then requires the context that the playbook isn't expanding, according to players I've asked about this, as much as it is emphasizing excellence of execution. And it finally requires accepting that neither of these two elements will change. Tomlin won't tolerate interceptions from a first-year NFL starter, and Canada's been told to make sure the offense principally gets better at the basics. Especially on the ground.
• I asked Pickett at minicamp what was the biggest difference in how he'll handle this offense from last season to now, and he replied without hesitation, "It's just the reps. I know more about what to do." That's really it.
• Alex Highsmith's five-year, $70 million extension is surprising only in its timing. But maybe it shouldn't be. See, Kevin Colbert preferred to have a player plug away through camp and, understandably, ensure he gets through healthy. He even did this with Troy Polamalu. Omar Khan, who's increasingly showing everyone he's his own GM, took the opposite route in getting Highsmith wrapped up beforehand to avoid any distractions from a defense that's undergoing a change to half its starters. And, not that Highsmith was threatening any holdout or even hold-in, a la T.J. Watt, he headed off any drama.
• Also and definitely not something to ignore: As I keep sharing here, Khan's got one more major move in him over the coming few weeks. And he's in a much stronger position knowing his budget.
• Calvin Austin III will be 100% available for 100% of everything from Day 1 at Saint Vincent College, he's assured me while also acknowledging that there was a part of him that held back a bit at OTAs and minicamp.
• Diontae Johnson vs. Joey Porter Jr. is the marquee matchup some on the inside are anticipating on Chuck Noll Field. Tomlin's always got one of those.
PENGUINS
• I've heard very little on the Erik Karlsson pursuit from the outset, and that hasn't changed much. Any leaks aren't on the Pittsburgh side but, instead, from the San Jose side attempting to drum up further interest. That's par for the course in any such setting. But I've heard this: The urgency on Kyle Dubas' end to get this done isn't excessive. He won't sell his soul for Karlsson and, in fact, he likely won't sell much of anything to pull off what most industry observers expect will be a swap of expensive contracts, a couple draft picks and little else. And within that, I'm told Dubas legit doesn't want to be handing out first-rounders, in general. He plans on being here for the long haul.
• That said, I'm also told Dubas isn't done on the blue line, isn't done with the fourth line.
• On that note, a very, very faraway source tells me Valtteri Puustinen's showing up for camp expecting to compete for a real job, that he's never trained harder -- nor with greater enthusiasm -- than he has this summer. I'm a Puustinen guy, so I'll leave out further opinion on this.
• I'll hold firm to reporting that Mikael Granlund will be either bought out or traded, and I won't change that until it's proven wrong. But we'll see soon enough, as the next buyout period's fast approaching in early August.
• Thanks for reading Insider! Here comes actual football! And soon ... the dawn of Puustinen! (Hey, I tried!)
