CINCINNATI -- There’s good news on Ke’Bryan Hayes’ left wrist injury, but no official word when he might return to the Pirates’ lineup.
On Wednesday, director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said that Hayes is “making daily improvements” in his rehab back from the left wrist injury he suffered Saturday in Chicago. Right now, he is just doing limited baseball activities, like throwing, range of motion drill and strengthening. He is not swinging a bat or playing catch yet.
Hayes clipped his wrist with the knob of his bat in the first inning of Saturday’s game, and was checked out on first base after he dove back to the bag on a pickoff attempt. While he stayed in the game to field for two more innings, he did not bat again.
Initially, it looked like Hayes was going to be out just the 10 days after the club decided to rest him rather than push through the injury. There’s no guarantee that it will be the minimum amount of days, though.
“Obviously we want him back as safely and expeditiously as we can with the long term in mind,” Tomczyk said. “So if it's not day 11, it's not day 11. We want him to feel strong. We want him to feel confident. We want him to be healthy for the majority of the season.”
Tomczyk said you learn more about injuries in the 24-48 hour window after they occur, so this is an example of learning a little more about the injury and that it was a bit more severe than the original day-to-day diagnosis.
“We would prefer this not to linger all year because that’s gonna benefit nobody,” Tomczyk said. “Still a little bit too early to tell if this is acute or a chronic issue. But at this time, he is trending in a really good position.”
MORE INJURY NEWS
• Steven Brault (left lat strain) continues to rehab in Bradenton, Fla. The Pirates are planning to have formal diagnostic reassessment on him next week.
• Blake Cederind (Tommy John) has been fitted for his post-op brace and is going to transition his rehab to Bradenton.
• José Soriano (Tommy John) is done with the side session portion of his rehab, and will be transitioning to sim games this week.
• Cody Ponce (right elbow) and Austin Davis (left elbow) are both throwing side sessions without any issues in their rehab. Ponce is scheduled to pitch a sim game later this week.