Ke’Bryan Hayes has made some “real nice progress” over the last 48 hours in his return from a left wrist injury, but it’s a “safe assumption” that he will not be activated for this series against the Padres, says director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk.
Hayes began swinging a bat for the first time since being injured Tuesday, and did so again Wednesday, taking soft toss pitches in a cage.
Tomczyk says the next step is continuing to build confidence in his swing.
“Ke’Bryan’s gonna have to regain that confidence that he can be Ke’Bryan on the on the field,” Tomczyk said. “It's hard enough for any veteran to do that, coming off an injury, let alone a young, very, very talented player such as Ke’Bryan. We want him to feel confident for the remainder of the season and not just make this a short-term game.”
Hayes was eligible to come off the injured list for Wednesday’s game, and while the Pirates initially thought he would be back in just 10 days when they placed him on the injured list April 4, it became apparent shortly after that he would need a little more time.
Tomczyk said he could not forecast if Hayes will be activated for this weekend’s road series against the Brewers.
MORE PREGAME NOTES
• Some more injury reports from Tomczyk:
Blake Cederlind (Tommy John) has initiated his rehab with the performance team and physical therapists in Bradenton, Fla.
Austin Davis (left forearm) threw an all-pitch side session earlier this week and is projected to throw a live batting practice later this week.
Steven Brault (left lat) continues to make progress with his range of motion, strength and conditioning. The timeline for his return remains the same, which in the best-case scenario would be early June.
Jose Soriano (Tommy John) is continuing with his sim game progression.
Cody Ponce (right forearm) is scheduled to throw a multi-inning sim game this week.
• After he and Jacob Stallings implied there was malice on the Padres' Taylor Williams when Phillip Evans got hit in the back late in Tuesday's win, Derek Shelton downplayed any talk of retaliation this afternoon.
"Last night’s over now," Shelton said. "We just move forward and play today’s game.”
• The Pirates have gotten basically nothing offensively out of the center field position, combining for a .053/.159/.079 slash line, .238 OPS and 23 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances (52.3%).
For reference, the average pitcher this year, league wide, is slashing .112/.139/.133 with a .272 OPS and 48.4% strikeout rate.
Anthony Alford and Dustin Fowler have received the bulk of the playing time there this season. Shelton was asked if he saw any positive signs from their performance thus far.
"I think there's signs of things moving forward," Shelton said. "I just think we need to see more signs. We need to continue. There's obvious areas that we need to work on, and those are the things that we are highlighting on a daily basis in our pregame work."
Fowler is getting the start in center Wednesday, batting seventh.