Matthew Bores

Staff Writer

mdb5896@psu.edu

As of April 8th, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70 million contract, making him the highest payed Pirate in the history of the organization. He has the option at the end of the deal to add on an extra year. Per Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports, Hayes surpassed Jason Kendall’s six-year, $60 million contract in 2000. Hayes said, “In my eyes, it shows how much they believe in me with little time I have been in the big leagues…”. Hayes is just 25 years old and plays 3rd base for the Pirates. He was drafter by the Pirates in the first round of the 2015 MLB draft. As per the MLB website, Hayes’ career stats are as follows: 11 home runs, 50 runs batted in, and at 457 at bats, his average is a .282. Since becoming the highest payed Pirate of all time, he has 1 run batted in, no home runs, and is averaging .400 at the plate. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates front office hasn’t payed many players the type of salaries you see in the rest of the league, but this move may prove they are willing to move forward with players who they believe are the future of the club. Many players have left Pittsburgh to become very good players, but also higher paid players in the same move. One incident is that of Gerrit Cole. He wanted more money from the club that they apparently were not willing to give, so he left and joined the Houston Astros in 2018. In the 2019 season, he would help them in the World Series, but the club would not win that year, losing to the Washington Nationals in seven games. Despite that, Cole would lead the American League in earned runs allowed with a 2.50. 

But getting back to Ke’Bryan Hayes, he had this to say about the club, “From the get-go when I got drafted, that was one of my main goals, to debut with the team that drafted me and play my whole career there…” Many players who are drafted are immediately sent down to the minor leagues so that they can gain more experience with not just the club, but major leaguers too. So the fact they brought him up and have kept him at his position shows not just to him, but to fans that there is a player they can trust to lead them to being competitive again. 

Hayes’ only issue is trying to stay off the Injured Reserve(IR). In the 2021 season, Hayes was put on the IR two separate times and was only able to play in 96 games out of the 162 game season. Coincidentally, at the beginning of the new season in 2022, against the division rivals St. Louis Cardinals, he was removed from the game in just the first inning due to a spasm in his forearm. This wasn’t anything serious to worry about, but Pirates fans got worried after not a day into his new contract was he taken off the field again. He was considered day-to-day with the spasm injury, but was back pretty fast. Pirate fans are hopeful that the season can be a better one and are now looking forward to a better team now that Ke’Bryan Hayes is secured in his franchise setting deal.