The 2020 Pirates can be summed up in two halves: Before Ke’Bryan Hayes’ promotion, and after Ke’Bryan Hayes’ promotion.
Hayes’ major-league debut has gone about as well as it could have so far, flashing all five tools in the majors in his first week in the show.
You want to see that glove and arm play? He recorded the third out in the ninth inning at home plate. Granted, he didn’t need to. Brain cramp on his part forgetting the number of outs, but hey, not a bad showcase.
You want to see him create runs on the bases? Well, where to start? There was his hustle triple Friday, and him staying down in a rundown long enough to make sure the runners each advanced a base after a failed contact play Sunday.
Or maybe you just want to see some pure, unadulterated speed. Here he is scoring the tying run Tuesday on a chopper in front of the mound:
Baseball Savant currently has his sprint speed at 27.3 mph, among the top-third of position players. Going solely off the eye test, that seems a little low and could creep up with a larger sample.
We’ve heard about his glove for years. But the baserunning?
“I didn’t realize he ran that well,” Derek Shelton said Friday. “A couple things stood out. His primary leads, his secondary leads. But the way he’s moving, it’s outstanding. He’s running like a middle infielder.”
Hayes has been working on improving his first step the past few seasons, focusing on doing 10-yard sprints. That’s all this guy does. He finds an area of his game to improve and works to improve on it.
But let’s be honest, you came here to read about Hayes as a hitter.
Well, there are worse ways to start your career than slashing .389/.421/.722. And he’s been hitting the ball hard the entire way. Eight of his 12 batted balls have been for hard contact, or an exit velocity of at least 95 mph.
Hayes’ 96.7 mph average exit velocity is the second-best in baseball among hitters who have put at least 10 balls in play. The only player ahead of him is the Twins' Miguel Sano, whose 97.3 mph average is aided in part of him striking out nearly half the time, minimizing soft contact.
Not to spoil the fun, but Hayes is facing fastballs almost 70 percentof the time, which makes sense, seeing how he is new to the majors and has not had a competitive at-bat since March. Intrasquad swings only count for so much. All but one of his hits has been against a heater. He’ll start seeing more offspeed and breaking stuff so enough. Still, it’s very encouraging that he can square up a 97-mph fastball.
Hayes has always been referred to as a glove-first player, mostly because that glove could be golden one day. Looking at his .265/.336/.415 slash line and 10 home runs in class AAA last season, one could assume he’s just a glove and a light hitter, but he has always hit the ball hard. The problem is it stayed on the ground too often. He needed to turn that hard contact into line drives and fly balls.
He’s made some mechanical changes since last year to try to make that happen. The Twitter account @piRatesanalysis made a great side-by-side comparison to show those changes, starting with Hayes opening up his stance:
His hands are also a little further away from his body, allowing them to be freer and move through the zone easier. These are good moves for helping him make more consistent contact, extending the time his bat stays on a good swing path through the zone.
Here’s a side view:
In this side view, we can see what I think is the most important tweak: His back leg. Watch his back foot from last year. There’s a noticeable skip forward. In the video from this weekend, he’s driving forward with it. These swings are more balanced, and he’s maximizing the load portion of his swing.
This is something Hayes and I talked about during the first spring training in Bradenton, Fla. Toward the end of camp, hitting coach Rick Eckstein identified that as a reason why so many of his hard hit balls weren’t being elevated. In true Hayes fashion, he took advantage of what was supposed to be an off-day by taking hundreds of swings in the cage.
Hearing him describe what was going on, you could tell it was an “Aha” moment.
During the introductory Zoom call on Sept. 1, I asked Hayes what he worked on during the shutdown. His answer matched our spring training conversations.
“The main things I was working on was being able to use my lower half to stay in my legs,” Hayes responded. “That way I'm able to read offspeed pitches better and drive those while still being on time for heaters."
Right now, he’s driving those heaters. He’ll be tested with offspeed stuff soon enough.
Hayes is going to save runs with the glove and create some on the bases. If he’s even just an average hitter, he’s going to be a good player. Maybe even really good. But if he’s unlocked something at the dish, the Pirates could have something really special.
The final two GIFs were provided by Twitter user @piRatesanalysis