When Ke’Bryan Hayes Returns…

5-26-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what the Pirates will do when Hayes comes back. First, the team is hitting, and no, I’m not taking the coincidence of him hitting the IL and the offense coming back to life as evidence they’re a better team without him.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore entirely what has been happening, and it certainly doesn’t mean Derek Shelton should just plop him right back into the top half of the order, especially as they’ve really seemed to gain some traction with what they’ve been doing.

Andrew McCutchen, Bryan Reynolds, Connor Joe and Oneil Cruz have primarily handled the top of the Pirates order, and you could even go an extra man with Nick Gonzales who’s stepped right in and been given an important role in the middle of the order.

Point is, I’m not sure I’m anxious to see Derek Shelton go right back to Ke’Bryan in the 3 hole from the jump and I’m saying this as someone who fully expects a healthy Hayes to swing a productive bat.

I mean we can talk about who is taken off the roster for him but does it really matter all that much? The way I figure it, he’ll either mean Tellez is finally DFA’d, or Alika Williams, maybe Jared Triolo get moved back to AAA. Rowdy isn’t good, I think that’s clear, I have much less faith than Ben Cherington at least verbalized in him, but he’s hardly been an issue recently. I mean, we’re talking about a guy who’s had 12 at bats since the 17th of May.

I know, I know, 12 too many right? The point is, he’s not playing with good reason and we’ll either see him get one last push of like 3 games after they feel like they’ve fixed something or they’ll just move on. I’d be much more upset if they weren’t just sitting him.

So let’s keep this focused on Hayes.

Against Left Handed Pitching the Pirates have been sporadically bumping Oneil Cruz down in the order to the 6 hole while he usually sticks cleanup against righties. I like the idea of Hayes in the 6 hole, I think that lengthens this lineup, but I’d like to not see them flip Hayes right in where they had Cruz. I just don’t see Hayes as a cleanup style bat. Maybe at times, but not often enough to eat the spot. He could go back to leadoff when they give Cutch a day off I suppose.

Thing is, I’ve liked what Edward Olivares has done in his opportunities against lefties too. Hayes can’t just be plopped at the bottom of the order, so we’re going to have to draw a line somewhere.

Let’s put all Shelton lineup jokes aside, and see if we can’t lay out two standard L/R Lineups. Most of you see him as a complete boob anyway so instead of focusing on how he’d use them, let’s instead look at what we, supposedly competent spectators might use the tools on hand. After all, if we can’t make it work, maybe he’s less a boob and more a patsy.

Against Lefties
Andrew McCutchen – DH
Bryan Reynolds – LF
Connor Joe – 1B
Oneil Cruz – SS
Nick Gonzales – 2B
Ke’Bryan Hayes – 3B
Edward Olivares – RF
Yasmani Grandal – C
Michael A. Taylor – CF

Against Righties
Andrew McCutchen – DH
Bryan Reynolds – LF
Connor Joe – 1B
Oneil Cruz – SS
Nick Gonzales – 2B
Ke’Bryan Hayes – 3B
Edward Olivares – RF
Yasmani Grandal – C
Ji Hwan Bae – CF

Here’s something that stinks. Edward Olivares is really not best served facing a ton of right handed pitching. If you had a fully functioning Jack Suwinski, the lineup comes together better against righties. If Rowdy Tellez wasn’t what he was, you might consider DHing him and giving Cutch time off.

This team needs more left handed bats, well, functioning left handed bats you want to use anyhow. Until they resurrect Suwinski or bring up another option, even if it’s Jake Lamb, they’re going to have to face right handed pitchers with some right handed batters who probably won’t prosper.

If they can’t get Jack turned around, they’re going to have to make this a priority. Connor Joe has given the team a gift, he’s made what they NEED to get easier to acquire. Because he can play multiple positions he affords them to shop for a left handed bat, which is easier than a very specific left handed first baseman.

Another thing I think I see here is Jared Triolo probably loses some playing time. There just isn’t going to be a whole lot of room. Think Alika Williams right now. I’m not sure that’s what I want him doing. Even if they choose to let him cover first base a bit, when? Pick a pitcher you’d rather have Triolo face than Joe.

There is room to improve this roster, that’s clear, but the how and what are starting to shake themselves out. Smart or not, this team planned on getting left handed power out of Rowdy Tellez and Jack Suwinski. They could have survived 1 of them not delivering, but both simply can’t go unfilled.

Over this next month, Jack gets right and comes back up, a long shot chance that Tellez eats magic beans and starts hitting 3 homers a week or they go get one.

Ke’Bryan Hayes returning will give us a look at how they intend to proceed and it’s hard to argue he wouldn’t improve the lineup, that doesn’t mean his reintroduction will be seamless. The chemistry is really good right now with the offense, and change, even expected improvement isn’t always easy to introduce.

The best version of this team has Ke’Bryan Hayes starting every day at 3B, that simple fact trumps all my other thoughts here, but I do think it’ll also be a bit of a touchstone for this season. How this goes will tell us a lot.