Mark Madden: Ke'Bryan Hayes is a brilliant fielder, but Pirates need more from his bat

Now that the Pittsburgh Pirates don’t stink for the first time in a while, it’s time to discuss them like a real baseball team. Weak links can be questioned and dissected.

Is third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes a weak link?

Hayes will keep playing even if that’s the case. He signed an eight-year contract extension worth $70 million at the beginning of last season. On a club with a miserly payroll, that’s enough to keep you in the lineup forever.

But Hayes’ offensive stats stink, and they might not get much better.

Hayes is hitting .225 with an on-base percentage of .282. Not ideal for a leadoff hitter, a role Hayes has filled.

Hayes has little power: Just one home run this year. Not ideal for a corner infielder in an era flush with clout.

These distressing stats are nothing new: Hayes did only marginally better last year, hitting .244 with an on-base percentage of .314 and seven home runs.

Hayes is a brilliant fielder, one of baseball’s best.

But in today’s offensively hyped brand of baseball, can any player besides maybe a shortstop (and maybe not) be just a glove? Does Hayes prevent enough runs with his fielding to justify being such a limp bat?

It’s a moot discussion: Hayes gets paid a lot by Pirates standards, so he’s got to play. There’s no ready replacement anyway.

It’s disappointing: In 2020’s pandemic-abbreviated season, Hayes burst into the majors by hitting .376 with five home runs in 85 at-bats.

But his lumber has since cooled, he doesn’t have power, and there’s little evidence to suggest he might develop any. (Though Hayes’ apologists cite launch angle, exit velocity, barrel rate, etc. But none of that matters unless the ball lands in the stands more. Or the gap. Doubles power, anyone? Analytics can turn reality into gibberish.)

The Pirates (probably) have worse hitters. Just not corner infielders with contracts that pay an average annual value of $8.75 million.

Bat him eighth or ninth and hope for better. Coach him up. That’s all that manager Derek Shelton can do.

It’s hard to call Hayes’ contract a mistake. The Pirates pay so rarely and to so few. At least he’s a great fielder. He makes scintillating plays more than occasionally.

But given Hayes’ price and lack of offensive acumen, he needs to be Pie Traynor dipped in Brooks Robinson with a side of Nolan Arenado.

Some of the Pirates faithful said at season’s start that Hayes would be better than St. Louis third baseman Arenado, who has won 10 straight Gold Gloves.

As it happens, Arenado is hitting just .236 with an on-base percentage of .291 and only two homers. But I don’t think bad trumping worse is what they had in mind.

The Pirates getting swept at Tampa Bay is no disaster. It’s a long season, and the Rays are one of MLB’s very best teams.

The late Chuck Tanner managed the Pirates to a World Series win in 1979. He said that every team loses 54, every team wins 54. That’s definite. Whatever happens in the other 54 determines if you’re any good. It’s a season that ebbs and flows.

It’s not football. You can’t get devastated by every loss.

The Pirates looked bad vs. Tampa Bay. Disheveled, flustered, frequently making mistakes. They got outscored 15-4 and were 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position. It was an unwelcome throwback to last season’s 100-loss level of failure.

But mostly, the Pirates don’t reek for a change. That should be enough for now. It’s May, not October.