Hays eager to build on ’17 rise

After roaring through minor leagues, outfielder works for big league spot

No matter who the Orioles bring in to compete with rookie Austin Hays for a major league job this year, both Hays’ mindset and the terms of engagement in the Grapefruit League mean that one of the most productive players in all of the minors last season will be set up well to open the season in Baltimore.

Despite hitting 32 home runs while batting .329 with a .958 OPS over the 2017 minor league season at High-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie, making his major league debut and gracing the cover of Baseball America as one of the game’s top prospects, Hays insists that the same player who showed up last year primed for all that will arrive in Sarasota, Fla., next week for his first major league camp.

“It didn’t really feel any different than before, because I’m still around all the same people that I was around before,” Hays said recently at the Baysox’s hot stove luncheon. “They all still treat me the same way. Nothing has changed. ... I’ve always taken pride in surrounding myself with good people that work hard and hold me accountable with everything — working Pitchers and catchers report: Tuesday

hard, showing up, being on time. I’ll always continue to do that, and that’s what I’ve done this offseason — surround myself with good people.”

As Hays made his ascent through the minors last year, and even a year earlier when the Orioles drafted him in the third round out of Jacksonville, the product of that mentality has been on display. Whenhe was out with a wrist injury at Short-A Aberdeen that first summer, he shagged fly balls at full speed in a wrist brace.

When Hays, 22, hit even a small slump amid his successful 2017 season, he’d work through it in the batting cage, using the opportunity to play on a daily basis — one he still speaks of with wonder entering his third professional season — to fix it.

So getting to wake up early each morning to lift, hit and field before getting likely daily game repetitions in the Grapefruit League will be a welcome task for Hays later this month.

“I’m very happy to get the opportunity to go down there and get started again and get after it. Start getting my reps in, get my timing back,” Hays said. “Knowing that games are back around the corner. I get that competition again. I’ve been competing against myself this offseason, not cheating reps, not cheating days. Now I get to compete against someone else who gets to pitch to me. That’s fun.”

Hays’ brief major league time gave him plenty to consider moving forward, with his aggressive approach at the plate exposed by the advanced breaking balls he saw in the majors. Hays hit .217 with a home run and a .555 OPS in 20 games in September, and saw waves of improvement and struggle even within that.

“They say it’s a game of adjustments, and it felt like I started kind of slow and I found my stride in the middle a little bit, then I ended the season slow again,” Hays said. “I’m just hoping it’ll keep rotating and I’ll come in and get hot again to start the year and try to stay hot as long as possible.”

The Grapefruit League could be just the place to do that. Over the past few seasons, especially when it comes to young outfielders, the Orioles have watched as players in Hays’ situation pushed the issue and made the club. In 2016, it was Rule 5 draft pick Joey Rickard who played his way onto the team, and then Trey Mancini did last season.

Hays’ quick, compact swing will see plenty of spring training fastballs from pitchers who are trying to get their work in for the season, and given he only really has one speed, he’ll be primed to take advantage of it.

At this point, without another addition, he’ll be competing with Rickard and Jaycob Brugman for a roster spot, though the presence of one of last year’s Rule 5 picks, Anthony Santander, could affect that situation as well.

“Austin had a great year and he did everything he could do to get to the big leagues, and he did it in a fast way,” hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh said at FanFest. “The one thing on him is he has always hit left-handers really well, and the opportunities he was presented with, he did the best he could. I think there was an adjustment period that he was able to make and he did a great job. He’s a super talent, he’s somebody that really is hungry to do well and I think he’s going to fit in very well.”