In search to stay healthy, show more power, Pirates 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes packs on muscle

BRADENTON, Fla. — After being bothered by back and hip pain, Ke’Bryan Hayes used his brains to add brawn.

The Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman invested in a team of trainers in the offseason to focus on core stability and stay healthy.

Hayes looked buff on the opening day of spring training, arriving at Pirate City with about “10 or 15 pounds” of additional muscle packed onto his 5-foot-10 frame in an effort to get back to his minor-league playing weight of 210 pounds and prevent the recurrence of nagging injuries.

“The last two years, I feel like I was a lot smaller than I’ve been in the past,” Hayes said. “Just being able to put a little bit of weight back on, just feeling more tight, being a little stronger only can help.”

Despite baseball’s best defensive metrics, Ke’Bryan Hayes didn’t win the NL Gold Glove at 3B. So he’s concentrating on becoming a better all-around player, in hopes that it makes the Pirates a better team. pic.twitter.com/1xcUwQxtLP

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 15, 2023

If health was his primary concern, improved production at the plate might have been an ulterior motive. Hayes slashed .244/.314/.345 with a team-best 24 doubles and 20 stolen bases but had only seven home runs, 41 RBIs, a below-average 87 OPS+ and 21.8% strikeout rate in 136 games last season. After hitting five homers in 24 games in September 2020, Hayes is still seeking the 20th homer and 100th RBI of his career after 256 games in the majors, hardly the power numbers expected at his position.

As much as Derek Shelton was impressed with Hayes’ improved physique, the Pirates manager is more interested in his approach. Hayes signed an eight-year, $70 million contract last April that was the richest in franchise history and made him the face of their future, so the 26-year-old should be entering the prime of his career.

“We’re seeing Ke’Bryan mature, not only physically but mentally,” Shelton said. “The first thing it tells me is how hard he worked in the offseason to be able to put on that weight. The fact that he was intentional with it, that he was intentional with the work he did with his swing, it’s a really good sign. Honestly, I think we’re starting to see him mature into what his body’s going to look like in a really good way. The fact that he was able to work on it and do it is a really positive sign.”

Where Hayes struggled to produce power at the plate, he proved to be an elite defender whose metrics show that he was baseball’s best defender last season. That Hayes doesn’t have a Gold Glove to show for it — St. Louis Cardinals star Nolan Arenado won his 10th consecutive — was met with a shrug.

“Once the award’s given out, there’s nothing you can do to change it,” Hayes said. “For me, just getting my back healthy, being able to come into spring training confident … I haven’t really thought about it since way back whenever the award was given out. My focus is coming into 2023 healthy, being able to help my team win games.”

A 60-day stint on the injured list with a left hand/wrist injury cost Hayes the NL Gold Glove in 2021. He won the Fielding Bible Award but didn’t meet Rawlings’ requirement of playing in 713 innings by the Pirates’ 142nd game.

Hayes made it his goal to be available for every game last season, but he injured his hip and lower back while doing sumo squats during the lockout. It was a nagging injury, one that gave him discomfort most of the season and forced him to miss a stretch of a West Coast road trip.

When he played, Hayes recorded an MLB-best 24 defensive runs saved, was worth more Outs Above Average (18), had the highest fielding percentage (.972) and the most putouts (109), assists (307) and chances (428) of the three NL Gold Glove finalists last season.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton was ‘frustrated’ that 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes didn’t win a Gold Glove last season despite an edge in metrics, calling the snub ‘disappointing.’ pic.twitter.com/dy4ydaXNYF

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 15, 2023

After an MVP-caliber season, Arenado won both the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove. Shelton, who publicly campaigned for Hayes to win the honors, called it “disappointing” that he came away empty-handed.

“I think he should have won it,” Shelton said of Hayes, citing the edge in metrics. “I realize and respect that Nolan won it. He’s won it many years. He’s an elite third baseman, probably one of the best I’ve ever watched. I thought in Ke’s last year — and I’m always going to defend our own guy — it was a situation where he should have won it. Maybe I can start the campaign for the ’23 season now. He’s an elite defender. The things that we can prove in the game now prove that and the metrics prove that.”

Long a fan of Arenado, Hayes shifted his focus away from the individual awards and onto becoming a better player. His goal is to help the Pirates, coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons, create a winning culture that takes them back to the postseason for the first time since they earned three consecutive wild-card berths from 2013-15.

“I obviously want to be an all-around player,” Hayes said. “I want to hit better, obviously, and be able to steal bases — I want to steal even more bases, if I can, this year. So I just want to improve every year at all facets of my game. As far as that, being how you win a Gold Glove and all of that, I’m sure there’s way more stuff that goes into it with how you win. I don’t really equate it.

“If you’re making the All-Star team and being on a winning team, I’m sure all of that stuff (will come), because more eyes are seeing you. The main focus for me is getting this team, all of us collectively, back to a winning culture. If individual stats come, they come. But we want to get it back to the playoffs as a team and eventually try to get to a World Series.”