Hayes sees brilliant debut, broad recognition as launching pad and little more

BRADENTON, Fla. -- “You wanted to talk to me?”

Ke’Bryan Hayes started our conversation at LECOM Park a couple weeks ago with a quick icebreaker. He had finished taking batting practice a couple minutes earlier, being one of the last players to take swings that day. As fans started to cycle into the stadium at the end of the interview, Hayes was drawing some eyeballs.

Even with the mask on and not in full uniform, he is already recognizable.

One would have to wonder who wouldn’t want to talk to Hayes right now, though. Fans, teammates, coaches, journalists, people who would love to put his face on a billboard off Route 51. Just about all of them could get something useful by picking his brain for a couple minutes.

If nothing else, it would be a chance to hear from the guy that other people can’t stop talking about.

Baseball America and MLB Pipeline named him their preseason rookie of the year picks.

Opening day starter Chad Kuhl says, “The sky’s the limit for how many Gold Gloves that guy can win.”

Steven Brault proclaimed on the Chris Rose Rotation podcast that “he’s the best everyday ballplayer I've ever played with.” Brault made sure to point out right after that he played with Andrew McCutchen and Josh Bell during his All-Star campaign.

All this for a 24-year-old who has only played 24 games in the majors.

To be fair, they were 24 spectacular games. Hayes batted .376 with five home runs and a 1.124 OPS in his first turn in the majors. In the field, he had four defensive runs saved, tied for the third-most at his position in the Senior Circuit despite the limited sample size.

The league took notice. MLB Pipeline named Hayes the ninth-best prospect in all of baseball, the highest ranking they had given a Pirates position player in over a decade.

He’s just what the Pirates needed at exactly the right time.

For a team in the early stages of a rebuild, Hayes was the first of the club’s highly-ranked prospects to get the call to the majors. He just might be the best. A true five-tool player – one who can field, throw, run, hit for average and power. He showed that in those 24 games last September.

The Pirates recognize that he has quickly become one of the faces of the franchise, which is why you can see his face plastered on the corner of Mazeroski Way and General Robinson Street, advertising the Pirates’ schedule for the 2021 season.

It’s a lot to throw on a rookie. He’s the face of the franchise. The face of the rebuild. The best reason why Pirates fans should tune in to any given game, just to see what he might do.

“It’s pretty cool that people view me like that already after playing such a small amount of games, but I’m just trying to take it day-by-day,” Hayes said. “I’ve still got a lot to prove.”

BUILDING UP HAYES

Kevin Poppe had heard about Hayes before he got to meet him. He knew about his dad, Charlie, a 14-year major league vet who squeezed the final out of the 1996 World Series about three months before Ke’Bryan was born. He heard that Ke’Bryan was making a name for himself on the Team USA circuit. That he was hitting third for Concordia Lutheran High School, leading them to be state runners-up as a junior and eventually the Texas champs the following year.

“He was one of the guys in the area that everyone was talking about,” Poppe told me.

When Poppe did get to see Hayes in person, filling in as a fall ball coach, he understood why there was so much buzz around him.

Jump forward a few years to 2017 and the two cross paths again. Hayes was looking for another place to train. Poppe was the owner of Dynamic Sports Training Performance in Houston, and they worked on a plan to add some muscle on the skinny infielder.

Poppe didn’t really get the full Hayes experience until after the 2017 season though. He had just completed his second full season of pro ball and wrapped up his High-A season. Class AA was up next, and that is often regarded as one of the toughest level leaps in the path to the majors.

“That’s when the extra log on the fire was put on,” Poppe said about Hayes’ drive.

That drive to reach the majors carried over through the 2018 and 2019 offseasons, and through Hayes’ debut last September.

In that first game, Hayes hit a game-tying home run after a rain delay interrupted the game. In the top of the ninth, he made a throw to the plate to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring.

Poppe was amazed at how calm Hayes was. Not only given the circumstances and the work he saw him put him, but knowing how much is on this young man’s shoulders.

“This isn’t a young guy getting his chance,” Poppe said. “This is the guy who is supposed to carry the organization. There’s a lot of pressure in that. He didn’t flinch at all.”

Hayes’ performance and demeanor reminded Poppe of another third baseman who trained at DST: Alex Bregman.

That wouldn’t be the only time Bregman’s and Hayes’ names were linked this offseason. The projection tool ZiPS says that the four third basemen who will accumulate the most wins above replacement over the rest of their careers are Bregman, Matt Chapman, Jose Ramirez and Hayes. Cold, hard math projects Hayes to be one of the best players at one of the most talent-rich positions in the game, if not the best in the National League going forward.

It’s high billing for a player who, again, has played just one month in the majors.

“He’s really out to prove to 2020, even though it was a short sample size, wasn’t a fluke,” Poppe said.

That’s why the focus for them at DST has never been about just adding muscle. Hayes spent a lot of time this offseason on his speed and getting the most out of first step, tools that will not only help his base running, but in the field. Mobility is just as important a part of his game.

“A lot of guys, when they get good at something, they’ll go all-in on that, and it almost becomes part of their identity,” Poppe said. “He doesn’t lose focus on what the end goal is. The strength is a means to an end. It’s not the end itself.”

That strength has been translating into more power lately, though many of the gym’s regulars don’t get to see it in person. DST has batting cages and pitchers with big league aspirations throwing in them. Those hurlers often try to get Hayes to step in the box. He politely refuses.

He takes his practice cuts at Charlie’s facility, Big League Baseball Academy, in Tomball, Texas, just like he has since he was eight years old.

THE SWING

The hands are set away from his body, at about chin height. The bat wiggles slightly back and forth towards the mound. As the pitcher starts his motion towards the plate, his front leg, which had been in an open stance, lifts ever so slightly and moves to be parallel with his back leg. The hands quickly head through the zone, he strides towards the pitcher, the hips open and the “bug” by his back foot gets squished.

Thwack!

Hayes may be better known for his defense, but it was his emergence as a hitter in 2020 that made him skyrocket up prospect charts. Scouts long believed that he had another gear offensively. In his first taste in the majors, he finally found it.

Thwack!

During the offseason, there will be about 250 thwacks in each batting session with Charlie at his baseball academy. Four days a week, so about 1,000 swings a week. All to get ready for the season.

“If you didn’t know Key, it’s almost a very boring process,” Poppe said.

Thwack!

This offseason, the thwacks were a little different.

It started last spring training. Hayes was hitting the ball as hard as anyone in camp, but wasn’t elevating it. Potential line drives were being beat into the ground. It was the same problem he was having in Indianapolis.

He went to hitting coach Rick Eckstein to see if he noticed something. He did: When going from his load to his stride, his back leg was skipping forward, throwing off his balance.

Hayes spent the next day hitting off a tee to get the feel down. The following day the Pirates were in Dunedin, Fla. In his first at-bat, he hit a no-doubter that sailed well over the wall in left.

The season was put on halt less than a week later, giving more time for Hayes to try to refine that mechanical change.

It’s the type of insight Hayes is always looking for in his swing. Analytics? Not so much. Last year in the cage, the Pirates would post who hit the five hardest hit balls in the previous series. Hayes didn’t pay much attention to it.

“I don’t really look at all that stuff,” Hayes said. “I just try to get out there, play hard, have fun. At the end of the day, just go shower it off and come back the next day.”

If he did check it, he would have seen his name near the top of nearly every list. Of the 353 batters last year that had at least 50 batted balls, Hayes’ hard hit rate (55.4%) ranked 9th best, right between former MVPs Christian Yelich at eighth and Mike Trout at 10th.

Unlike many of the game’s power hitters, Hayes wasn’t all-or-nothing, either. He whiffed on less than one-fifth of his swings, a rarity in today’s game. No hitter had as high a hard-hit rate with as high of a contact rate.

How do you learn a swing that doesn’t have to compromise consistency for power?

Thwack!

Charlie once joked to me that Ke’Bryan wore out his brother Tyree’s arm, and now he’s almost worn out his. Tyree pitched in the minors, but it’s usually just Charlie who throws to him. Instead, Tyree is now the one who sends Ke’Bryan the articles that list him as the rookie of the year front runner. The type of articles and outside distractions Ke'Bryan tries to avoid.

“I’m grateful to have them in my corner,” Hayes said. When I want to get work in, they’re there for me. It can be 9 at night, 10 o’clock.”

It sometimes takes a bit of convincing to get Charlie on board to throw or do band work to loosen his arm. A thousand of those thwacks a week can wear you out.

“I’m gonna have to buy him a new arm, soon,” Hayes said with a laugh.

‘IRON SHARPENS IRON’

If Hayes had his way, he wouldn’t be in rookie of the year discussions, because he would have already lost his rookie status.

He first thought he had a shot at the majors during the 2018 season after tearing up Class AA and being named the organization’s minor-league player of the year. He didn’t get a September call up, but he was invited to spring training for the first time the following March.

When he didn’t get the call the next year, it stung a little more. He struggled out of the gate in Indianapolis, but finished strong. Even though he needed to be added to the roster in a matter of months anyway, Pirates management decided to give a cold shoulder to one of their most promising prospects. Hayes ended up missing one of the worst months in the franchise’s history, which included a clubhouse altercation, the arrest of the team’s best pitcher and, eventually, the firing of the team president, general manager, manager and most of the coaching staff.

Going into spring training in 2020, the Pirates reached out with a contract extension offer that would guarantee him a spot on the opening day team. The two sides negotiated, but the pandemic halted the season and contract talks.

When Hayes finally came to Pittsburgh for the summer camp at that start of July, he had to quarantine because he tested positive for COVID-19. He didn’t know how it happened. All that was known is that he would not be on the opening day team.

When he was finally cleared, he went back to Altoona to take part in the alternate training camp. He knew there was an opportunity in the majors, but he had to prove he was back physically.

“He was dealt a tough hand by contracting the virus, and he needed to work his way back. He understood that,” Brian Esposito, the manager of the alternate site last year, told me. “There was never a sense of urgency [from him] to overdo something to overcompensate for the time that he missed. All he was worried about was using the time that he had to get himself as prepared, to be as good of a player with the time that he had.”

Esposito and Hayes had worked together before, both in Indianapolis in 2019 and when they were with the Class A West Virginia Power in 2016. In that time, Esposito has seen Hayes open up a little more. Let that sense of humor show. Smile.

But that drive to get better remained.

“We talk about [players] who know where they are, what they can do better and how we should go about it, and he’s the model of that,” Esposito said.

The Pirates targeted Sept. 1 as a potential date to promote him to the majors. A third chance for Hayes to be a September call up. This time, he wasn’t going to miss it.

As the major league team’s losses started to pile up in August, the calls from the fanbase to finally promote Hayes got louder and louder. The one person who never asked why Hayes wasn’t in the majors already was… Hayes.

“That’s what’s remarkable about that young man. He continues to work hard and then let’s his performance do all the talking,” Esposito said.

During that month in Altoona, something interesting happened. At just 23, Hayes was hardly a veteran. There were plenty of people in camp who already had major league experience or would get a call to the show before him. Still, a lot of the younger players in camp gravitated towards him.

That included Liover Peguero, the highest-rated prospect Ben Cherington has traded for in his tenure. Just 19 years old at the time, Hayes was practically a veteran compared to the shortstop. They left quite the impression on each other. Hayes was impressed that Peguero was holding his own against AA and AAA players. Peguero was buying into the Hayes hype first hand.

Peguero is on the cusp of top 100 prospect lists – it’s a possibility that once Hayes loses his rookie eligibility and is removed from MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list, Peguero will be the player taking his place -- and could potentially be in the majors as soon as 2022.

The thought of them potentially being the left side of the Pirates infield is an exciting prospect not only for management and coaching, but the two players.

“He was just like, ‘Be patient. I’m gonna be right here waiting for you,’ “ Peguero said, beaming. “That makes me feel so happy.”

"Right here," of course, was the dirt at PNC Park.

It wasn’t just Peguero and Hayes in camp. There was also Nick Gonzales, Oneil Cruz, Mason Martin, Ji-Hwan Bae. Esposito very well could have seen something nobody had ever seen before: The Pirates’ infield of the future, all in the same spot.

Hayes was the first of that group to break through. With the benefit of hindsight, Esposito saw the experience as a positive for Hayes and the rest of the infielders. After all, “iron sharpens iron.”

“They were always communicating, trying to get each other to get better,” Esposito said. “That infield could be really special, but they all need each other to be that much better.”

‘STRONGER THAN HE KNOWS’

One day while working out at DST, one of the gym’s patrons put 400 pounds on the bar to do deadlifts. Once they were done, the group tried to get Hayes to try to take a turn.

Hayes declined, saying there was no way he could lift that much. After some coercing, and a few reps on lighter weights to get ready, the group won and Hayes gave it a shot.

Not only could he lift the weight, he did a set of 10.

“He’s much stronger than he looks, and he’s much stronger than he knows,” Poppe said.

That strength showed up in the form of 10 spring training extra-base hits, with most of them going to the opposite field.

“I know I make a big deal out of this, but you never really see him get out of his comfort zone and try to do too much,” Derek Shelton said. “He stays really on the right-center side of the field. When he does have a situation to pull a wall, he stays under control with this swings. If you watch him on a day-to day basis, you'd be shocked that this guy's played 24 games in the big leagues.”

Hayes adopted that hitting mentality in 2019. After struggling to start the year, he decided to try to aim his fly balls to right-center. If he timed the pitch right, he would find a gap. If he was early on an offspeed or breaking pitch, he still had a chance to pull it for a hit. It was the first spark of his offensive breakout.

Poppe has seen a spark from him many times. When asked what his expectations for his pupil are, Poppe did not mince words. Hayes continues to exceed every expectation he ever had for him. He may as well make some big ones.

“He’s got all the markings of a guy who is the cornerstone of a franchise, potentially a Hall of Famer,” Poppe said. “I think he’s going to be a multiple-time All-Star. To say that’s all going to be apparent this year, it very well could be. I don’t want to set the bar too high for him to reach, but at the same point, he’s exceeded every expectation I had.”

His manager is a bit more down to earth. Shelton has just two expectations for him this year: “Have consistent at-bats” and “catch the baseball.” He’s not looking for any more than that. After all, what more can you really hope for from a rookie?

Well, that and being the first prospect to break through the wall. He’s waiting for Peguero. There are more young players to come. When they do, Hayes will be at the center of that nucleus.

“As time goes on and we get to play with each other more, as we continue to get more experience together, I think it’s going to be really fun the next few years,” Hayes said.

If Hayes' second turn in the majors is an encore of the first, it may start being fun in 2021.