Remember a few years ago when a power miss was in vogue? They are a dozen, and securing a stop that can be a serious threat in your squad is a huge deal. Today, every team has one of them. The Boston Red Sox had two in Xander Bogaerts and Trevor Story last season. The increase in power at number 6 has translated into an absence of power at number 8. In 2022, central miners across the MLB posted an average of 0.237, an on-base percentage of 0.303 and 0.688 OPS. Those are both the lowest numbers for center position since positional statistics became available in 1973. In fact, since 1973, the five lowest batting averages in a season for central players all happened… in the last five years. The 2022 National League All-Star team does not have a single striker.
Due to a series of injuries — Mike Trout, Byron Buxton, Luis Robert, George Springer — as well as most of this generation’s unsuccessful midfield prospects — Victor Robles, Lewis Brinson, Mickey Moniak, Bradely Zimmer, etc — a lot of teams suddenly find themselves in need of a central controller, but aside from Aaron Judge and Brandon Nimmo, it can be said at least that the options in the free agency pool are few. Cody Bellinger? Kevin Kiermaier? Sorry! That won’t be a very likely long-term solution.
Thankfully, another pick has just been included in the group: Pittsburgh Pirates Bryan Reynolds.
Reynolds is a 28-year-old nearing the end of consecutive seasons with OPS-plus 125 and up. He also ranks fifth among all center punchers with 125 plus generated weighted runs. He has a moderately high walking speed, a fairly low strike rate and despite being below average for a centre-back (28.3 feet per second — 30th among center players with at least 50 competitive runs in 2022), he’s still much faster than the league average (27 feet per second). Basically, he was a very good player in the middle of his prime and he played in a senior position.
G/O Media can receive commission
The only downside is that Reynolds is not a good defender. He has posted a number of defensive runs saved in each of the previous two seasons (-5 DRS), with a sharp drop in 2022 (-14 DRS — lowest among all qualified centers in 2022 with a very wide margin). He can still play this position, right? He has above average speed so he can theoretically cover a lot of ground, right? Sure, but that also means he probably won’t be in this position for long.
Teams have two options with him – either plug him into the center and hope the bad defense doesn’t come back to bite you for the next couple of years before his pace fades and you have to put him there. corner position for the remainder of his contract, or put him in the corner immediately. Now, some would argue that moving Reynolds to the corner so early would dramatically reduce his value, but that’s not exactly true. They’ll say “Sure, 136 OPS or more over the last two seasons seems great for a central midfielder (and while it’s still great no matter what position you play), it’s almost not great for a corner midfielder.” However, of all the central defenders with at least 600 appearances since the start of 2021, Reynolds is third in OPS-plus. If he was a corner midfielderhe’s still sixth only behind Aaron Judge (remember this includes the 2021 spots), Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber and Kyle Tucker.
Even as a corner midfielder, Reynolds’ offensive ability is outstanding. Maybe OPS-plus is not your thing. Well, in terms of offensive rWAR, Reynolds is still third among all outsiders as of early 2021. In terms of runs generated, Reynolds is just behind Juan Soto. Run produced? Thursday. Adjust the run of the ball? Monday. No matter how you try to cut it, Reynolds is an incredibly talented attacker no matter where you position him off the field, and with his forte being central, he can still play there if needed, giving his time to the prospects in his position. New group farm system to develop.
In a world with such a disparity between top-class center players and mid-tier central players, Reynolds is a beacon of hope for any team looking to compete in 2023 that already has a hole. was a big part of their squad last season, where it was assumed the man was in control of the center. Okay. There’s a lot to like about Reynolds and the opportunity he offers. It will cost him a pretty penny, but he’s worth every penny.
