4-25-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
Today your Pittsburgh Pirates locked up their best player through 2030 with a club option for 2031. 8 years, $106,750,000. There is no opt out and a modified no trade clause baked in.
Jason Mackey from the PG reported it first this morning.
Once the two sides agreed on money almost a month ago, this moment felt inevitable, albeit the terms left cloudy. It felt like the Pirates were going to have to accept something less than ideal from an opt out standpoint, but they were able to get past it and work out a record setting deal for the franchise to ensure a key part of the core will be here through the end of the decade.
The importance to the team is clear, but what it says to the fan base might be more important still. The Pirates are going to try to keep this core together when they identify players they want to be a part of it, but make no mistake, this deal simply doesn’t happen if Bryan Reynolds himself didn’t so vocally want to be here.
I’ve heard from sources that many of his representatives wanted him to walk away from the table, but he held steadfast that he wanted to be a Pittsburgh Pirate and now he could very well wind up playing his entire career in black and gold.
Good for the fans, good for the city, honestly, good for Bob Nutting, he’s been more responsible for every instance of smoothing communications between Reynolds’ camp and his representatives. Laugh if you want, but this doesn’t happen if he wasn’t relentless that he wanted it to.
We’ll obviously have more on this as the story continues to unfold as well as next steps for other possible targets.
Enjoy it Pittsburgh, the Pirates are back.
Inside The Bucs Basement 
I’m thrilled with this signing, and the Pirates really didn’t change the yearly salary much from the original 6 years @ $80 million. I think it’s a great deal for both sides, and I’m happy that Bryan truly wanted to stay.
I wonder if his opinion began to change as he saw this team coming together, with the veteran additions, and the young Bucs coming of age.
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Not really. He wanted this 2 years ago
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And you called it every step of the way. It took longer to materialize than hoped, but I tip my cap to you in reading the tea leaves as presented by sources and reporting from various journalists (tip to them too). I couldn’t help giving what for to at least one of those mainstream baseball media (who had him traded several times) when expressing such shock and awe at this situation that’s been brewing for years, clearly, from local beat reporting.
Here’s hoping he’s a rare case of living up to the vast majority of the contract. Always tough to know whose eyes (let alone rest of the body from a bad slide, wall crash, etc.) will hold up. But a great occasion indeed!
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