Bryan Reynolds voted Pirates MVP, Mitch Keller top pitcher by BBWAA Pittsburgh chapter
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Derek Shelton hasn’t been shy about calling Bryan Reynolds the Pittsburgh Pirates’ best player, and the offensive numbers back the manager up.
So does the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Reynolds won the Roberto Clemente Award as team Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season, receiving 24 of 27 points as voted by members of the BBWAA Pittsburgh chapter.
“That’s obviously a huge compliment,” Reynolds said. “Coming from Shelton, I think it might mean a little more. That’s a big compliment.”
Thanks to a breakthrough second half, Mitch Keller won the Steve Blass Award as the team’s top pitcher. Keller received 23 points. All-Star closer David Bednar, who has a team-best 19 saves in 44 appearances, was the Blass Award runner-up.
First baseman Michael Chavis, who was designated for assignment Sept. 26, was the winner of the Chuck Tanner Award for being most media friendly after edging reliever Wil Crowe by one point.
Reynolds is slashing .260/.343/.459 with 17 doubles, four triples, a career-best 27 home runs and 61 RBIs. After a rough start where he batted .194 in April and .225 in May, Reynolds rebounded by slashing .333/.379/.610 with eight homers and 19 RBIs in June.
Shelton noted that Reynolds sets an example for his young teammates with his effort, which earned him the Pirates’ nomination for the Heart and Hustle Award, and by providing professional at bats despite not having much protection in the order.
“When your best player plays hard every day it’s really easy when you have a group of young players to make sure you continue to push them effort-wise when they see that,” Shelton said. “Bryan continued to evolve at the plate as a hitter and he went through a stretch this year that was not very good. To be able to battle out of it … that’s pretty impressive.”
Rookie shortstop Oneil Cruz was the runner-up for the Clemente Award. Cruz is slashing .232/.291/.458 with 13 doubles, four triples, 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 84 games.
Keller is 5-12 with a 3.92 ERA and 1.39 WHIP in 154 innings over 28 starts, after lowering his ERA from 4.55 in the first half to 3.05 in 12 starts in the second half. The 26-year-old right-hander has displayed a newfound confidence, especially in getting out of jams.
“The No. 1 thing that’s jumped out to me is his demeanor. Every time he takes the mound, he expects good things to happen. That’s something you have to develop at the major league level,” Shelton said of Keller. “Mitch in the past has been in situations where he may have doubted that something good was going to happen and he had to execute a pitch. Now, he really thinks, ‘All right, I’m in control, I’m gonna go after people.’ That’s definitely a sign of growth. It’s a sign of maturity. It’s a sign of a young player coming into himself. I’m really proud of him for that. It takes mental fortitude to get there and I think we’ve really seen him grow that way this year.”