Pirates News: Dave Parker Hall of Fame, Ke'Bryan Hayes injury, Ben Cherington speaks

When Dave Parker is enshrined in Cooperstown this summer, his bronze plaque will honor the team where he became a star.

The 1978 National League MVP, who earned his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame via the Classic Baseball Era Committee's vote in December, will wear a Pittsburgh Pirates cap for his plaque in Cooperstown, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Monday. It isn't known whether he will wear a solid cap or the famous striped cap from the "We Are Family" World Series season in 1979.

Parker played 11 of his 19 MLB seasons with the Pirates from 1973-83. He also played for his hometown Cincinnati Reds, the Oakland Athletics, the Milwaukee Brewers, the California Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes addresses chronic back issues at spring training

After chronic lower back issues limited him to just 97 games in 2024, Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes told Alex Stumpf of MLB.com at spring training this week that he is feeling "the best [he's] felt in a while as far as moving around and running."

Hayes also said that while his injury is "not something that's ever going to go away," he adopted a new offseason training regimen that has helped tremendously with managing his symptoms to the point where he is almost pain-free. The Pirates remain bullish on the former first-round pick returning to his 2023 form, when he hit .271 with 15 home runs and 61 RBI.

Ben Cherington squashes rumor that Pirates have big move coming

Just a few days after Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports falsely reported that the "main move" of the Pirates offseason was still yet to come, general manager Ben Cherington set the record straight.

When asked point blank if the Pirates were on the verge of making any big moves before the official start of spring training, Cherington said (via Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) that they were "not on the doorstep of anything." Color us entirely unsurprised.

That's probably why Kovacevic implored his readers not to "hold [him] to this as if it's some sort of prediction" – because it was never going to happen in the first place.

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