Coming into the 2026 fantasy baseball season, you might have thought that Oneil Cruz, Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, or even Marcell Ozuna would have been the Pittsburgh Pirates’ best offensive player. A case could have possibly been made that stud prospect Konnor Griffin would come up from the minors and take that title, and he might have if not for an injury that has sidelined him for months. A player who would not have been on anyone’s lips after his terrible 2025 season was Bryan Reynolds.
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But he is, without a doubt, the best offensive player on the Pirates through four months (in the non-Esmerlyn Valdez division, since he is clearly the next coming of Babe Ruth). Coming into the Pirates’ game against the Yankees on Monday, Reynolds not only led the Pirates in on-base percentage (OBP), runs, offensive WAR, wOBA, and wRC+. According to Stathead, he is the ONLY player in baseball with at least a .280 average, 14 home runs, 70 runs, and 55 RBI.
To say Bryan Reynolds has stepped up his game in 2026 (as a 31-year-old) after a bad 2025 is an understatement. Let’s look at how Reynolds has taken his game to a different level entirely this season, and used his new supporting cast around him to help.
The Bryan Reynolds Re-Emergence
At 31 years old and already in his eighth professional season, the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder is having a second emergence as an elite fantasy hitter. How is someone who hit .245 with a .318 OBP, 68 runs and just 144 hits hitting so well this year? Let’s dive in and look at one of baseball’s most unheralded offensive stars through 16 weeks.
Reynolds Has Elevated His Contact This Season
Through his first 435 plate appearances heading into his game on Monday night, Reynolds has a wOBA of .385. That puts him above players like Jordan Walker and Otto Lopez, and just below players like Kyle Schwarber and Pete Crow-Armstrong. As you might expect, that is in the top 1% of all hitters. It’s also a massive jump from his .315 wOBA last year in Pittsburgh.
Reynolds’ average exit velocity, max exit velocity, barrel rate, and hard-hit rate are consistent with his numbers from last year and in previous years. Where he is outpacing his past numbers is with an elite number in the zone contact department. Reynolds is now at almost 87% in zone contact rate, over three percentage points higher than last season. He is swinging at the exact same percentage of pitches in the zone this year as last year (73.5% to 73.6%), but he has learned to square up balls in the zone better, and the contact proves it.
Fly Ball Tendencies Are Also Helping Reynolds
One other massive change is how Reynolds is putting the ball in the air much more often than his bust 2025. So far, about 32% of his batted balls have been fly balls, compared to just 28.5% in 2025. Why is this important? Because fly balls, and fly balls that are pulled in the air, are the best type of batted ball for home runs. Reynolds understands this, and is using this to his advantage as he ages. His line drive rate is also still solid at almost 21%.
In 2026, Reynolds is hitting ground balls just 46% of the time. The result of more balls in the air has been a home run to fly ball rate of about 17%, which could regress down some, but would still be the highest number since 2022.
At 31 years old, these are great signs for a hitter who is starting to age, and who has matured past his physical prime and recognizes the opportunity he has to create power from more loft. Strong batted ball metrics and putting the ball in the air have gone a long way so far this season.
Reynolds is Also Showing Growth In His Plate Discipline
Reynolds came into Major League Baseball with a 26% strikeout rate and just an 8% walk rate in 2025. In 2026, those numbers are 23% and 14.5%, respectively, and it’s helping everywhere. He simply is swinging less at bad pitches and producing better contact quality when at the plate; he’s also making better decisions as he evaluates each pitch.
His swing rate is down, his contact rate is slightly up, his zone contact rate is up significantly, and he has lowered his swinging strike rate over a full percentage point from last season. This is the true definition of plate discipline growth, and it’s getting to a point where he is becoming one of the most feared hitters in the National League, even at age 31.
Keep in mind, Reynolds also has a full 100 games under his belt and is fifth in the National League in plate appearances. For all of the good that Reynolds has done, his best attribute might be that he has done it with so much volume this season.
Bryan Reynolds’ Year Looks Legit
Add up all of this under-the-hood production, and it has led to a very strong stat line to start the season – some might even call it MVP-worthy. Overall, Reynolds is hitting .282/.398/.475 with 14 home runs, 59 RBI, and 71 runs in 101 games. We saw that he is the only player to reach certain milestones this season, but what if we lower the batting average threshold to .270 and the runs to 65? Here is who we get:
- Yordan Alvarez
- James Wood
- Shohei Ohtani
- Ben Rice
- Junior Caminero
- Jordan Walker
- Bryan Reynolds
Every player on this list with Reynolds is an MVP candidate. So why isn’t Reynolds thought of in the same way?
Reynolds is better than the 80th percentile in xwOBA, hard-hit rate, chase rate, and walk rate, and is above the 75th percentile in exit velocity. This breakout, while with a little luck attached and with some help from his battery mates in the lineup, is for real. Reynolds has been in Pittsburgh a long time, and this second breakout might be more satisfying than the first one because the Pirates are in the playoff hunt this season.
Put everything together, and it’s easy to see how Reynolds has put together such a strong season so far. Reynolds is 100% rostered in Fantrax baseball leagues of course, so everyone has caught on to his strong start. But do they realize how good it has been, or are they willing to part with him in a trade? The first slump might be a great buying opportunity, if that ever comes. There is nothing telling us Reynolds is going to slow down this season.
The Pirates are in a tough Wild Card race with several good teams. But this season is also about developing their young players and seeing if the new core they put together can mesh into something consistent. Reynolds might be the most veteran presence of the bunch, and he is leading by example. If he continues to do this all year long, at least a few MVP votes are going to find him at the end of the year.
For fantasy baseball, he is one of the best multi-category hitters in the game and might win a lot of end-of-season votes for best pick of the draft.
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