Pirates' Bryan Reynolds Had One Main Focus This Offseason
In this story:
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds didn't have the year he wanted in 2025, but he's focused on 2026 and his improvements prior to Spring Training.
Reynolds spoke with reporters at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla. about what he worked on this offseason and said that his swing was the main area of concentration for him.
“Just fixing my swing," Reynolds said in a video from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Which I did, so now we just got to translate that over to live and then games and stuff and not hit the panic button. Day one of lives."
Reynolds struggled early on in 2025, but this improvement should help him have a better start for this season, one where the Pirates have playoff ambitions.
How Bryan Reynolds Fixed his Swing
The one way that Reynolds said he tried to improve his swing was by focusing on "getting on plane earlier".
When a player is "on plane", they are trying to match their swing's attack angle to the descent angle of the ball coming at them. Simply, having your swing match the line of the pitch.
The reason why getting on plane helps when a player swings is that it allows them to have extra time to make good contact, which is something Reynolds noticed he wasn't doing early enough with his swing.
“Getting on plane earlier," Reynolds said on improving his swing. "I would kind of push it with my hands and my barrel wouldn't get to a good spot until late.
"Me and the guy I hit with, we just started hitting regular, starting taking video and I was like, 'Man, that looks bad.' I looked at some other videos of some homers in the past and stuff and just tried to get that and I did."
"Just video. Just video and thinking about it really," Reynolds said. "I didn't do any drills or anything like that, just kind of feeling it. Feeling it and looking at it. Making sure it's doing what I want it to do."
Looking Back at Reynolds' 2025 Season
Reynolds struggled in 2025, finishing with a career-low slash line of .245/.318/.402 for an OPS of .720. He also tied his career-low in home runs (16), which he had as a rookie in 2019, and his career-high 173 strikeouts, the fifth most for a Pirates player in a season in franchise history.
He performed poorly from the plate early on in 2025, batting .194 by May 14, before getting back to the mid-.200 mark by the end of June.
Reynolds also had a terrible July, where he slashed .195/.222/.264 for an OPS of .488 with no home runs and just 17 hits in 87 at-bats.
He bounced back in August, slashing .295/.383/.543 for an OPS of .926 and finished the final two months of the season hitting .274/.375/.468 for an OPS of .843, with 51 hits, 16 doubles, six home runs and 22 RBI.
Reynolds has two All-Star nods in the past, slashing .275/.344/.447 for an OPS of .791 in 156 games in 2024 and his best season came in 2021, slashing .302/.390/.522 for an OPS of .912 in 159 games.
The Pirates will need Reynolds back at his best this season, and with additions like Marcell Ozuna, Ryan O'Hearn and Brandon Lowe, he should have some lineup protection to thrive once again.
Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.