MLB Pipeline ranks Ke'Bryan Hayes the No. 9 prospect, 3 other Pirates in Top 100 list

The Pittsburgh Pirates are rebuilding around Ke’Bryan Hayes, and the third baseman can now be billed as the franchise’s first-ever top 10 position player to make MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list.

MLB Pipeline unveiled its rankings Thursday night, and Hayes was ranked baseball’s No. 9 prospect. The honor came on his 24th birthday, making him one of four Pirates to appear on the MLB Pipeline Top 100.

After an impressive #MLB debut, Ke'Bryan Hayes is a 2021 NL ROY favorite and the #Pirates' highest-ranked hitting prospect in over a decade: https://t.co/zxg1XgkUA5 pic.twitter.com/rMPWElBZGl

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 29, 2021

Hayes is the team’s highest-ranked prospect since pitcher Tyler Glasnow was No. 8 in 2016 and No. 7 in ’15. Pitchers Jameson Taillon (No. 9 in ‘11) and Gerrit Cole (No. 7 in ‘12), now both with the New York Yankees, also were top-10 prospects for the Pirates.

The other three Pirates prospects included in the top 100 are their past two first-round draft picks. Second baseman Nick Gonzales, selected No. 7 overall last June, is ranked No. 43, while 2019 right-hander Quinn Priester is ranked No. 52. Shortstop Oneil Cruz is ranked No. 64.

Young Bucs on the rise. pic.twitter.com/fFMOKmMkzO

— Pirates (@Pirates) January 29, 2021

Only the Tampa Bay Rays (eight), Seattle Mariners (six) and Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins (five each) had more prospects in the Top 100.

The list includes a trio of former WPIAL standouts. Plum graduate Alex Kirilloff, an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins, is ranked No. 26. Left-hander Brendan McKay, a Blackhawk graduate who pitches for the Rays, is No. 72. And West Allegheny alum Austin Hendrick, an outfielder selected in the first round by the Cincinnati Reds last June, is ranked No. 86.

The Pirates are one of 10 teams with four players on the list. They have added 11 prospects to their system since Christmas Eve through the trades of Josh Bell to Washington, Joe Musgrove to San Diego and Taillon to the Yankees, but none of the acquisitions cracked the top 100.

MLB.com senior writer Jim Callis warned Tuesday on the MLB Pipeline Podcast that Hayes will soon graduate from prospect status. Hayes batted .376 in 24 games for the Pirates last September, flashing a great glove and one of the hardest-hit rates in the majors in earning NL rookie of the month honors and finishing sixth in NL rookie of the year voting.

“It’s interesting. I think you win with star talent,” Callis said. “To me, when Ke’Bryan Hayes graduates two weeks into the big league season, that to me would move the Pirates down more than these trades would move them up. I think they have more depth. Once they lose Ke’Bryan Hayes in mid-April — or whenever it is — I think that would actually move the needle down for them more than adding all of this depth will help them.”

Fellow MLB.com writer Jonathan Mayo agreed that there will be a “gaping hole” once Hayes comes off the prospect list, but believes the Pirates have young players “who could step into that that void, but they have to go out and play and show they can do it.”

Here are Nos. 51-60 on the 2021 #Top100Prospects list: https://t.co/zxg1XgkUA5 pic.twitter.com/brR5bF851b

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 29, 2021

One is Priester, a 20-year-old power pitcher that Mayo said “could add elite-level arm to their system.” Another is Gonzales, an elite college hitter ranked the No. 2 second baseman in MLB Pipeline’s prospect position rankings. Cruz is closest to making the majors, as he spent 2019 at Double-A Altoona and last summer at their alternate training site.

Mayo also predicted that the two 20-year-olds the Pirates acquired from Arizona in the Starling Marte trade in January, shortstop Liover Peguero and right-hander Brennan Malone, are high-ceiling prospects who could eventually crack the top 100.

“Peguero, people love,” Mayo said. “He’s going to be a guy to watch who could make a huge leap up lists.”

And Mayo expects the Pirates’ fortunes to change again in July.

“Remember,” Mayo said, “they have the No. 1 pick in the draft, too.”