Ke'Bryan Hayes voted Pirates MVP, Mitch Keller top pitcher by BBWAA Pittsburgh chapter

Ke’Bryan Hayes has shown his value to the Pittsburgh Pirates with his ability to hit to all fields and Gold Glove-worthy play at third base this season, but neither attribute compared to his absence.

Mitch Keller emerged as the anchor of the starting rotation, earning his first All-Star appearance and reaching career highs in wins, starts, innings pitched and strikeouts, and he set a single-season record for the most strikeouts by a right-handed pitcher in franchise history.

Hayes won the Roberto Clemente Award on Saturday as the Pirates’ MVP and Keller the Steve Blass Award as their best pitcher, as voted by members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Designated hitter Andrew McCutchen was voted winner of the Chuck Tanner Award for media cooperation.

Where Hayes received nine out of 10 first-place votes to win MVP honors for the first time, Keller edged All-Star closer David Bednar by one point, with six first-place votes to Bednar’s five, to win for the second consecutive year.

Hayes leads the Pirates with a .272 batting average and seven triples and has produced career bests with 29 doubles, 15 home runs and 63 RBIs through 123 games, despite missing a month while on the injured list with lower back inflammation.

The 26-year-old Hayes batted .337 with 13 RBIs in June before missing all but one game in July, when the Pirates lost 16 of 24 games and fell out of contention. Since his return Aug. 2, they have a .500 winning percentage (27-27) as Hayes batted .309/.346/.552 with 13 doubles, 10 home runs and 30 RBIs over 47 games entering the final homestand.

“I think we saw a healthy Ke’Bryan Hayes for an extended period of time,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The ability to drive the ball, the ability to have consistent at-bats. Defensively, it’s well-documented how I feel about him. But I think we’re seeing the complete player, the guy that can do so many things, that can impact the game in so many different ways.”

Hayes also leads all third basemen in defensive runs saved and outs above average, and appears to be the front-runner to end St. Louis Cardinals star Nolan Arenado’s run of 10 consecutive NL Gold Gloves. Shelton called it “the biggest no-brainer of all time.”

Keller was 13-9 with a 4.21 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 194 1/3 innings over 32 starts this season. He broke A.J. Burnett’s mark for most strikeouts by a right-hander, with 210, as Keller averaged 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings against 2.5 walks.

The 27-year-old Keller had the best week of his career in May, when he pitched his first shutout, a 2-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on May 8, and followed it with a career-high 13 strikeouts in seven innings in a 4-0 win at Baltimore on May 14.

“I can’t think of anyone better,” Keller said. “I couldn’t even imagine doing that, then going out on Mother’s Day and striking out 13 against the Orioles. It turns out to be a really good team. I think at the time, we knew they were a really good team. Now, over 100 wins, that’s probably one of the cooler outings I’ve had. That was a lot of fun.”

Keller struggled after the All-Star break, going 0-4 with a 6.28 ERA in four starts in July, before rebounding over the final two months. He went 4-2 over his final 10 starts, including a 12-strikeout performance against Minnesota on Aug. 19 and eight shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 24 and Washington on Sept. 14.

“I think we’ve seen a guy that’s going to help anchor a rotation,” Shelton said. “And why I say that is because we saw him really, really good, probably about as good as he could be. And then, we saw him hit a little bit of a lull, and we saw him bounce out of it — and bounce out of it not only in terms of what his usage should be, how he should pitch, where his velocity’s at. I think that’s the sign of a really good pitcher, because when you go through stretches when you’re not throwing the ball as well, it’s how you bounce out of those stretches. He had to do the whole circle this year.”