Ranking Yankees’ rumored trade targets ahead of Aug. 2 deadline

5. Bryan Reynolds

Just on merit, Bryan Reynolds has to rank higher than Benintendi, Taylor and Peralta, but he’s not exactly an attainable target. The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to want a huge haul for the center fielder, who rebounded admirably after a slow start.

Reynolds is now hitting .261 with an .808 OPS, 127 OPS+, 40 runs scored, 15 homers and 32 RBI. But a week ago, he hit the injured list with an oblique strain, which is never a good sign.

Additionally, most of what the Yankees would be paying for here is team control. Reynolds isn’t a free agent until after the 2025 season, but his defense is pretty much average and his bat has been largely inconsistent across his first 431 career games.

Don’t get us wrong, he’s a good player that the Yankees should want on their team, but when it’s more worthwhile to pay the premium on positions of more urgent need (pitching), there’s no sense in emptying key assets for a position that can be addressed in-house on the big-league roster or down the road with promising outfield prospects coming up the pipeline.