Ke'Bryan Hayes embracing expectations of becoming Pirates' next star

After dealing with a revolving door at third base the past five years, the Pittsburgh Pirates appear to have found a player who can put a lock on the position in rookie Ke’Bryan Hayes.

Since his Sept. 1 call-up, Hayes has not only handled the hot corner with a great glove but a better bat than the Pirates anticipated. Hayes hit safely in 18 of his first 22 games, including a six-game streak entering Saturday night at Cleveland, and is touting a .329/.400/.592 slash line with four doubles, two triples, four home runs and 10 RBIs.

The sizzling start hasn’t fazed the 23-year-old Hayes, a 2015 first-round pick who was rated the team’s top position prospect and has been groomed by his father, Charlie, who played 14 seasons in the major leagues.

“The work that you put in, whenever you have success with it, it doesn’t so much surprise you,” Ke’Bryan Hayes said. “Whenever we go up there, we expect to do really well. The success that I had I’ve been really grateful for.”

Hayes’ numbers through his first 22 games compare favorably to those of the strong rookie starts by Pirates like Starling Marte in 2012, Gregory Polanco in ’14, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier in ’16, Austin Meadows in ’18 and Bryan Reynolds last year. Of that group, only Frazier (.372, 1.018) and Meadows (.346, 1.027) had a better batting average and OPS. Only Polanco and Meadows had more hits (27 each). Only Meadows had more home runs (five). Only Polanco had more RBIs (13).

To take that another step, Hayes is off to a better start than Andrew McCutchen had in his first 22 games in 2009, in every offensive category except for two (McCutchen had five triples and 18 RBIs).

Of course, the Pirates also are 7-15 in Hayes’ first 22 games. Only Meadows endured a worse start, as the Pirates went 5-17.

But Hayes has solidified a spot in the starting lineup at a pivotal position, becoming the 33rd Pirates player to start at third base since former first-round pick Pedro Alvarez switched positions. It’s only a matter of time before Pirates fans hang a label on Hayes that some of his predecessors wore like an albatross around their necks: face of the franchise. Only McCutchen was capable of living up to the expectations as the Pirates’ next star.

“I don’t think it puts any pressure on me,” Hayes said. “I just use it as motivation. The success I’ve had makes me hungrier to get back home after the season ends and get even better. There are things I still can work on offensively, defensively, running.”

No wonder Pirates manager Derek Shelton has been impressed. Shelton mentions Hayes in the same breath as Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs and Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians, in terms of having a slow heartbeat and playing his best under the bright lights.

“This kid’s going to continue to get better,” Shelton said of Hayes. “He’s going to be better with people in the stands. He’s going to be better on the big stage. You get Baez, and you get Rizzo and you get Lindor, these guys, their internal game clock works different. Ke’Bryan has that. What he’s doing on the field is special. It’s not something you can teach. It’s something he has. When you watch him do something that maybe looks pedestrian, that’s really hard, it stands out.”

Shelton cited a pair of plays Hayes made against the Cubs this past week as examples. On Tuesday, Hayes went to his left to field a grounder with Cameron Maybin at second, bobbled the ball but adjusted to make the throw across his body to get Ian Happ out at first base. Another saw him field a David Bote grounder outside the third-base line and throw across the diamond to beat Bote to first.

To Hayes, it’s simple. He noticed Bote and Maybin had pulling a lot of balls foul. Hayes checked his defensive positioning card, then took a step or two to his right because Pirates right-hander Chad Kuhl is a sinkerball pitcher and was “rolling over a lot.”

“I just played a step or two to my right, which helped me get over there,” Hayes said, “and I was able to plant and get a good, strong throw over to first.”

What Shelton marvels at is how Hayes handles “the hardest thing about playing third base,” his ability to read the drop-step play. It’s why Shelton is convinced Hayes could be a shortstop at the major league level, a position he often is asked to play in defensive shifts.

“That’s extremely difficult because with the way the ball is hit and the angle (at which) it’s hit, you have to be able to read if you’re going to charge and come get or if you’re going to have to make that drop step,” Shelton said. “It’s difficult to do that. It’s tough to read, and it’s a natural instinct. It takes time for guys to go over there and do it naturally.

“There are certain guys who have the ability to do that. It’s something if you don’t have a natural ability to do it, you really have to work on it and you have to work on it with speed off that extreme velocity.”

It hasn’t gone unnoticed by Hayes’ teammates, either. Frazier called Hayes’ defense “pretty impressive.”

“He kind of covers the whole left side by himself, it feels like at times,” Frazier said. “I think he’s going to continue to get better, too, because he’s not satisfied with how he’s played, and that’s a recipe for a really good player: When you’re already pretty good and you just continue to nitpick at little things to strive for perfection.”

Hayes said he’s not much of a talker, but he has been observant in watching how Pirates players go about their business, following their daily routines of preparation in searching for ways to get better.

If there’s obvious room for improvement, it’s that he has 19 strikeouts and eight walks. Hayes has noticed pitchers are attacking him more aggressively early in the count. His approach hasn’t changed, even as he’s moved up in the order after hitting .400 at seventh (8 for 20), .278 at third (5 for 18) and .353 in the two-hole (12 for 34). Hayes tries to be aggressive early and drive it, the same way he started his major league career, and hopes it’s just the beginning of something bigger. He wants to become a building block for a championship team.

“I was drafted with Pittsburgh,” Hayes said. “To be able to be here long-term and maybe one day bring a World Series here, that would be awesome for me to do with the same organization I was drafted with.”