Pirates, Ke’Bryan Hayes Agree To Eight-Year, $70MM Extension

April 12: The Pirates have now formally introduced the deal.

April 9: The complete breakdown of the deal, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is as follows: Hayes will earn $10MM in 2022 and 2023, $7MM in every of the following 4 years, adopted by an $8MM wage in 2028 and 2029. The 2030 membership choice is price $12MM and comes with a $6MM buyout.

April 7: The Pirates took a significant step towards locking up their younger core this afternoon, inking third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM extension, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. The deal, which represents each the biggest assure ever given to a participant with between one and two years of service time and the biggest deal ever handed out by the Pirates, will preserve Hayes in Pittsburgh by way of at the very least 2029. It additionally features a membership choice for the 2030 season, the phrases of which aren’t but clear. Hayes is represented by The Ballengee Group.

The deal buys out three years of the third baseman’s free company, which might have arrived on the conclusion of the 2026 season barring an unexpected demotion. Hayes, who’s coming into his age-25 season in 2022, will now stay underneath crew management by way of his age-32 (or age-33, ought to the Pirates train his choice) season. Whereas he might nonetheless be in line for a stable payday at that time ought to he stay productive, as we speak’s extension is more likely to cowl the nice majority of his prime years — which means that his $70MM assure is more likely to represent a majority of his profession earnings.

Since being promoted to the large leagues halfway by way of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hayes has been one of many few brilliant spots for a moribund Pirates franchise, slashing a world-beating .376/.442/.682 throughout 95 plate appearances throughout 24 video games that September. His numbers got here again to earth in 2021, maybe because of an early-season wrist damage that held him out of motion for roughly a 3rd of the 12 months and sapped him of a lot of his energy. In his quick profession, Hayes has posted a .280/.340/.442 triple-slash in 491 journeys to the plate whereas taking part in high-end protection at third, profitable the 2021 Fielding Bible Award for third basemen (edging out stalwarts Matt Chapman and Nolan Arenado).

Whereas retaining Hayes (the son of long-time big-leaguer Charlie Hayes) round for the long run is bound to advertise some optimism throughout the long-suffering Pittsburgh fanbase, few anticipate the Bucs to contend within the quick future. After shedding 101 video games in 2021, GM Ben Cherington hardly re-loaded within the offseason, buying and selling for infielder Josh VanMeter and signing first baseman Daniel Vogelbach, outfielder Jake Marisnick, and reliever Heath Hembree to low-cost free agent offers whereas buying and selling beginning catcher Jacob Stallings to the Marlins for right-hander Zach Thompson and a pair of minor leaguers. The membership does have a collection of high-end prospects on the horizon, nevertheless, together with recently optioned 6’7″ shortstop Oneil Cruz and right-hander Roansy Contreras, each of whom are more likely to see big-league motion ahead of later. Second baseman Nick Gonzalez and righty Quinn Priester might additionally see the majors in 2022, whereas catcher Henry Davis (the highest total decide within the 2021 draft) might be a 12 months or two away.

Cherington’s success in locking up Hayes for the foreseeable future attracts consideration to questions surrounding the way forward for middle fielder Bryan Reynolds, the opposite high-end expertise on the Bucs’ energetic roster. Reynolds, who proved his 2020 struggles a fluke to the tune of a .302/.390/.522 triple-slash in 2021, is underneath membership management by way of his age-30 season in 2025, reportedly turned down numerous extension proposals forward of the 2021 season and didn’t re-engage with the membership between the top of the season and the implementation of the lockout. He’s been the topic of countless commerce rumors — he’s been immediately linked to the Padres and Marlins this offseason — however Pittsburgh’s asking value is (understandably) sky-high. Even when they proceed to go year-to-year with Reynolds (presently a Tremendous Two, he’ll earn both $4.25MM or $4.9MM in 2022, relying on the end result of an in-season arbitration listening to), the Bucs can anticipate their All-Star outfielder to play alongside their high-end up-and-coming expertise for at the very least just a few years earlier than hitting the open market.

Certainly, whereas Hayes’ extension offers the Pirates the form of value certainty small-market golf equipment crave (in addition to the potential for a boatload of surplus worth), it isn’t more likely to change their rivalry timetable. Even whereas competing within the NL Central, the place the Cubs seem like engaged in a mini-rebuild and neither the Brewers nor Cardinals appear to be inquisitive about pushing all their chips in simply but, Pittsburgh isn’t more likely to host October baseball for just a few years but.

That mentioned, the unpredictability of prospect efficiency cuts in each instructions, and the Pirates could have the type of high-end prospect depth to take a giant step ahead as quickly as 2023 — significantly if Cherington will get the go-ahead from possession so as to add some payroll. At current, RosterResource projects the membership to hold an Opening Day payroll of simply $45MM (the bottom in Main League Baseball), and with nearly nothing in addition to the Hayes extension dedicated past 2022. For a fanbase that hasn’t seen a significant sport since shedding the 2015 NL Wild Card Sport (and nonetheless haunted by the 1992 NLCS), realizing the Bucs will maintain onto their star third baseman for the majority of his prime is probably going the perfect information they’ve heard shortly.

{Word: Hayes left this afternoon’s sport towards the Cardinals with an obvious hand damage. Murray tweets that Hayes’ extension remains to be topic to a bodily. Murray reports that Hayes suffered solely a “very minor” cramp, and there’s no indication it’ll have any bearing on the long-term deal.}