BRADENTON, Fla. – The workouts at the Pirates’ minicamp are less intense than the ones in spring training.
As the camp continued Tuesday at Pirate City, the drills were basic. The position players took a few rounds of batting practice and fielding groundballs or flyballs while the pitchers either played catch or worked out in the weight room.
Nevertheless, it has been fun to watch top prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes take grounders at third base. Regardless of how hard the coaches and instructors hit fungoes, nothing gets past the 21-year-old.
Hayes has won the minor-league Gold Glove each of the last two seasons. That is emblematic of being the best defensive third basemen in the entire minor leagues.
Hayes also has the statistics to back it up.
He made just six errors in 278 total chances and 1,003 2/3 innings last season at Class AA Altoona. In 2017 with high Class A Bradenton, he was charged with eight errors in 307 chances and 950 1/3 innings.
Of course, being a third baseman is part of Hayes’ bloodline. His father, Charlie, played the position for 14 seasons in the major leagues from 1988-2001, including spending most of 1996 with the Pirates.
2. Steven Brault has switched up his offseason throwing routine in the hopes of gaining more consistency next season. The left-hander continued to throw lightly as soon as he returned home to San Diego at the end of last season. He will throw a bullpen Wednesday before checking out of minicamp, which ends Thursday.
3. Joe Musgrove had surgery to repair a pelvic stress reaction in October. It sounds like quite a painful injury, but Musgrove downplayed the significance of it. “Everybody pitches through stuff over the course of the season,” he said. “It’s part of the job.”
4. Richard Rodriguez is one of the few players who are locks to make the opening day roster participating in minicamp. Rodriguez says he wanted to keep the momentum going following a standout rookie season in 2018 in which he had a 2.47 ERA in 63 games with 88 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings.
5. Call it a sign of the times. Before batting practice began Tuesday, Clint Hurdle bellowed, “Are you going to use an opener to throw BP?” The Pirates are at least considering the opener concept in which a reliever starts the game by pitching an inning or two before yielding to a more traditional starting pitcher.