Pittsburgh Pirates: What the Lineup should be with Ke’Bryan Hayes

At long last, the Pittsburgh Pirates are calling up their top position prospect.  Now that they are promoting him, they need him to play everyday.

The Pittsburgh Pirates did not make any moves leading up to Monday’s Trade Deadline.  The team did deal Jarrod Dyson to the Chicago White Sox, but that was the only real trade they made.  Apparently, they were close to dealing starter Joe Musgrove to the Blue Jays, but things did not work out in the end.

While there were not really any trades to be excited about, the team did make a roster move.  They are calling up top position prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes to make his big league debut.  Over the last couple week, many, including the staff here at Rum Bunter, have been pushing for Hayes to get promoted.  Finally, the team is making the move now that rosters are basically locked for the remainder of the season.

Third base will receive a big time upgrades in Hayes.  This is nothing against Colin Moran, he does a good job at third base, makes the plays he should, has a good strong and accurate arm.  However, Hayes is a Gold Glove Caliber player and should be considered one of the best defenders in baseball already.  In terms of offense, Hayes has some room to grow yet.  Still, he has steadily grown over the last few years.  For instance, in 2019 he hit under .250 and sported a .734 OPS.  However, in his 47 games after the All-Star break, Hayes improved to a really respectable .290 average with a .772 OPS.  He also hit 10 home runs, reaching double digits for the first time in his career.

Ke’Bryan Hayes has arrived.  He deserves to be up and has the tools to be a very good player for the Pittsburgh Pirates going forward.  If anything, he is by far one of the best all around prospects the team has had come up in a long time.  Hayes does not strike out a lot either, just an 18.8 percent clip, so this should help him have big league success.  One thing is that Hayes needs to work on is lifting the ball more so that his projectable power can play up.  That will be the difference for Hayes and whether or not he lives up to the number one prospect status.

Regardless he should be given very opportunity.  The team has been very patient with his promotion, so one should expect him to receive a good bulk of the playing time.  It should go further than that.  This team should be looking at playing their 2021 lineup as much as possible.  That would mean locking Hayes in as the everyday third baseman.  This would allow the team to move Moran to first base, which would in turn give a boost defensively to both corner spots.  On top of that, this would allow Josh Bell to focus on hitting, the spot that his true value is and will always be.