PITTSBURGH -- Bryan Reynolds had a flight booked to return home to Nashville next week for the All-Star break. But after Sunday’s announcement on ESPN that he’d be in the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder for the National League, that quickly changed.
What were his big plans?
“I was just going to sit on my couch,” Reynolds said. “I'm pretty sure I'll take this 10 times out of 10 over that one, so yeah, the flight's canceled.”
Reynolds was voted into the All-Star Game through player balloting, and he joins second baseman Adam Frazier as the Pirates’ representatives in the contest, which will take place on July 13 at Coors Field. Reynolds, a first-time All-Star, is the first Pirates outfielder to be selected for the All-Star Game since Starling Marte in 2016.
“It's exciting,” Reynolds said. “I’d hoped it would happen. [It was] one of my goals this year, so it's really exciting.”
“Reynolds can hit,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He can really hit. He's hit at every level. Last year was the first time, I think, that he got into a little bit of a hole and couldn't get out of it. This is the guy that we expected.”
However, Reynolds was left out of the nine NL outfield finalists in Phase 2 of fan voting, and he didn’t crack the top 20 in fan balloting in Phase 1. That’s what the player balloting and selections made by the Commissioner’s Office are for, though, and that process helped a deserving player get his due recognition.
Now, the Pirates have two position players in the All-Star Game for the first time since 2014, when Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen made the NL roster. And in terms of the Pirates’ roster and on-field leaders, there are few better options than Frazier and Reynolds.
“I’m kind of a broken record talking about Adam Frazier and Bryan Reynolds,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said before Sunday’s game. “We’re talking about two players who are incredibly consistent in how they prepare to play.”
“Yeah, I'm excited,” Reynolds said. “He's one of my good buddies on the team, so it's going to be fun to experience that with him.”