Hayes admits wrist was problem
Throughout the season, Ke’Bryan Hayes wouldn’t give in to his wrist injury.
It was his left wrist that originally held him out for two months in April and May, but he fought through the pain and played in 96 games for the Pirates this season. Anytime he was asked, he brushed the injury off, saying any issues with his production could be solved with hard work.
At the end of the season, though, when he was placed on the injured list after re-aggravating the injury, Hayes gave in. He said the wrist had been bothering him since the All-Star break, and the doctors had found a cyst between the pointer and middle fingers on his left hand, which they told him had developed as a result of chronic injuries to that area.
So now, Hayes is figuring out his next steps. General manager Ben Cherington acknowledged that was the case Tuesday in his end-of-season Zoom conference. Hayes has seen a doctor in Ohio and will get a follow-up upon returning to his home in Texas.
“We’ll get that information, share that information with our group, collaborate on a plan for his continued recovery,” Cherington said. “Every piece of information we have right now leads to us being very optimistic about his recovery, about this not being something that gets in the way of an offseason, certainly not into spring training or next year. I think more importantly, he feels that way. He feels very optimistic.”
Of course, that wrist injury colors how Hayes’ season is viewed. After setting supremely high expectations in 2020, slashing .376/.442/.682 in 24 games, he wasn’t the same in 2021. He was bound to come back to earth, sure, but what was most concerning is his struggle to drive the ball for extra-base hits consistently. After hitting seven doubles and five homers in 2020, he had 20 doubles and six homers in 2021 despite playing four times as many games.
Additionally, Hayes’ launch angle plummeted this season to 2.6 degrees on average, down from 7.4 degrees in 2020. His hard-hit percentage dropped 10%, his barrel percentage dropped 4%, and even his walk rate ticked down a bit. Again, some of this is to be expected, given his 2020 numberswere unsustainably high, but the Pirates believe that another bit of it can be attributed to his wrist.
“We’re really encouraged by his year because as we think of the growth of a young player, he continued to play his tail off defensively,” Cherington said. “Obviously we all see that. He was going out there offensively, probably without feeling his best all the time. And yeah, wanted to be out there with his teammates. Wanted to play. Wanted to help the team win in any way he could. When the numbers look better, it will feel better for everyone. But often players have to go through those hard times, too, on the way to doing that. Respect Key for what he did this year, and obviously he’s a huge part of what we’re doing going forward.”
Coaching carousel
The Pirates parted ways with hitting coach Rick Eckstein at the end of August. Immediately afterward, Cherington said they probably would not be hiring a hitting coach before the end of the season. True to his word, they have not.
Instead, the focus seems to have been on compiling a list of potential candidates while trying out an updated philosophy over the last month of the season. As Cherington puts it now,that philosophy included a change in how the Pirates preparefor games, both in pregame workouts and in game planning.
As far as the coaching search, it seems things are beginning to kick into gear.
“We’ve got a very long list of names that we’ve been doing due diligence on and trying to learn about,” Cherington said. “So much is just about fit. It’s about finding someone who has a particular skillset, experience, strengths, that complements and adds to what’s already here, and someone who is really a good cultural fit with our players and our staff, someone who is interested in coming in and being a part of a team just to help players get better.
“That’s what we’ll be focused on, and I would expect we’ll start interviewing sometime in October.”
Cherington added that he and manager Derek Shelton are still discussing the status of the rest of the major league coaching staff. No decisions have been made yet regarding whether or not the rest of that group will stay intact heading into 2022.
The Pirates did make a move in their minor leagues, though, opting not to renew the contract of Class AAA Indianapolis manager Brian Esposito. Cherington said the search for Esposito’s replacement will begin internally.
Perhaps that means Class AA Altoona manager Miguel Perez or High-A Greensboro manager Kieran Mattison could be candidates, considering that many of the players they coached this season could make their way to Indianapolis in 2022.
“Going forward, we can all probably imagine some of the players that might be in Indy next year or might be in Indy soon. So it’s always an important job. It’s a particularly important job for us going forward,” Cherington said.
“We feel really fortunate there’s a number of people in our coaching and player development group right now who have done great work this year and we believe in, and so we look at that first. We’re always looking to get better expertise or new ideas or new perspective. There’s value in that. But first look internally to see if there’s alternatives.”