In his defense, it was a step in the right direction.
There are many ways to look at the Pittsburgh Pirates' season this year, and one of them suggests it wasn't as disappointing as it might seem. The Pirates are eliminated from playoff contention, and that's very unfortunate.
After a series win against the St. Louis Cardinals earlier in the week, the Pirates found themselves in a position where they should feel pretty good about what they've been able to do on both sides of the baseball this year.
Pittsburgh is currently 81-78, and that's much better than most thought the team would play entering the year.
At the same time, it felt like the Pirates had a real opportunity to make the playoffs if things went right, but unfortunately, they never got over that hump. It was a team that hovered around the .500 mark for a lot of the season and missed a lot of golden opportunities.
Had the Pirates played the way they should have, this should have been a wild-card team.
Speaking to reporters, however, a couple of players in the organization do seem somewhat content with how the year went. Not that they're happy with missing the playoffs, but they view it as a step in the right direction.
"It definitely gives you confidence," Bryan Reynolds said, per DK Pittsburgh Sports. "This last September or whatever, we've got a good record, and that's pretty much at full strength. Gives us some confidence to show us that we're capable of it. Obviously, we didn't do the ultimate goal, but a few steps in the right direction."
"Throughout the year, there was an expectation that coming to the field, you have a real good chance to win, which hasn't really been the case in some years past," Reynolds said. "To be where we're at — obviously, it's not where we'd like to be — but a few games over .500 with a couple games left and we weren't at full strength for really any of the year, except for maybe three weeks total, just continuing to fight."
I think it's fair for Reynolds to think like this, even if I don't necessarily agree with him.
However, when we actually think about what Reynolds has gone through during his career in Pittsburgh, a .500 season is probably something that he's very happy with. I know that doesn't sound great, but it's the reality.
