Ke'Bryan Hayes

Kevin Newman Expected To Miss 3-5 Weeks With Groin Strain

By Anthony Franco | April 27, 2022 at 2:52pm CDT

Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman left last night’s game due to left groin soreness, and the team’s director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk told reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) this afternoon he’s been diagnosed with a strain. The issue is expected to keep him out for three-to-five weeks.

Newman will certainly be placed on the 10-day injured list, leaving the Bucs needing to fill in at shortstop. Newman has started 13 of the first 17 games there, with Hoy Park, Diego Castillo and Cole Tucker accounting for the other four outings. Tucker is on the COVID-19 injured list, so Park and Castillo figure to be in line for the bulk of playing time over the coming weeks. Manager Derek Shelton said it’ll be Castillo who gets the nod for tonight’s game against the Brewers (via Mike Persak of the Post-Gazette).

Castillo and Park both went to Pittsburgh from the Yankees in last summer’s Clay Holmes trade. Both players had solid numbers in the high minors last year, but they’re each already in their mid-20’s. Most public prospect evaluators don’t regard either as a long-term regular, although Castillo checked in 16th at Baseball America and 17th at FanGraphs during those outlets’ respective write-ups of the Bucs’ farm system this winter. Both noted that Castillo isn’t likely to be a long-term fit defensively at shortstop but praised his bat-to-ball skills and suggested he could be a useful bat-first utility type.

While a Castillo – Park pairing seems the likeliest outcome, the Pirates could look elsewhere to hold down shortstop in Newman’s absence. Ke’Bryan Hayes moved to the position from his customary third base spot for the final few innings last night, his first career action there. Hayes, widely regarded as a Gold Glove-caliber player at the hot corner, could probably hold his own at shortstop. It seems, however, the Bucs would rather leave him at third base, where they’re certain he can be a plus defender.

The Pirates also have top shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz on optional assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis. The 23-year-old made a brief big league cameo at the end of last year, but he was optioned to start this season. That seemed to be motivated, at least in part, by service time considerations. Cruz has now spent enough time in the minors that he wouldn’t automatically reach a full year of MLB service in 2022 even if he were called up for good today.

However, the new collective bargaining agreement grants a full season of service to top prospects who finish among their respective league’s top two in Rookie of the Year balloting. On the one hand, that’s a player-friendly provision; yet it can also disincentivize a team like the Pirates — amidst a full rebuild and not in position to compete in 2022 regardless — from calling up a player of Cruz’s talent level until deeper into the season to diminish the chances he compiles Rookie of the Year-caliber numbers to earn that bonus service year.

There’s also the simple matter of Cruz’s early performance in Indianapolis, which has not been good. He’s hitting .203/.288/.339 with just one homer through his first 66 plate appearances. It’s thus unsurprising Shelton didn’t sound as if the team were planning to bring Cruz up at this time. Asked if Cruz was an option to replace Newman, the skipper noted that “everybody in our system who’s on the roster at the upper levels will be given consideration” but added that “there’s still work (for Cruz) to be done. We’re focusing on what that work is” (Mackey links).

In other Pirates’ news, Shelton informed reporters that star outfielder Bryan Reynolds will be back on the roster tonight (via Persak). He hit the COVID list alongside Tucker yesterday, but it would appear he never tested positive and is currently asymptomatic.

Pirates Sign Ke’Bryan Hayes Eight-Year Extension

By James Hicks | April 12, 2022 at 8:35am CDT

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

April 9: The full 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 each of the next four years, followed by an $8MM salary in 2028 and 2029. The 2030 club option is worth $12MM and comes with a $6MM buyout.

April 7: The Pirates took a major step toward locking up their young core this afternoon, inking third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM extension, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. The deal, which represents both the largest guarantee ever given to a player with between one and two years of service time and the largest deal ever handed out by the Pirates, will keep Hayes in Pittsburgh through at least 2029. It also includes a club option for the 2030 season, the terms of which are not yet clear. Hayes is represented by The Ballengee Group.

The deal buys out three years of the third baseman’s free agency, which would have arrived at the conclusion of the 2026 season barring an unforeseen demotion. Hayes, who is entering his age-25 season in 2022, will now remain under team control through his age-32 (or age-33, should the Pirates exercise his option) season. While he could still be in line for a solid payday at that point should he remain productive, today’s extension is likely to cover the great majority of his prime years — meaning that his $70MM guarantee is likely to constitute a majority of his career earnings.

Since being promoted to the big leagues midway through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hayes has been one of the few bright spots for a moribund Pirates franchise, slashing a world-beating .376/.442/.682 across 95 plate appearances across 24 games that September. His numbers came back to earth in 2021, perhaps as a result of an early-season wrist injury that held him out of action for roughly a third of the year and sapped him of much of his power. In his short career, Hayes has posted a .280/.340/.442 triple-slash in 491 trips to the plate while playing high-end defense at third, winning the 2021 Fielding Bible Award for third basemen (edging out stalwarts Matt Chapman and Nolan Arenado).

While keeping Hayes (the son of long-time big-leaguer Charlie Hayes) around for the long term is sure to promote some optimism within the long-suffering Pittsburgh fanbase, few expect the Bucs to contend in the immediate future. After losing 101 games in 2021, GM Ben Cherington hardly re-loaded in the offseason, trading for infielder Josh VanMeter and signing first baseman Daniel Vogelbach, outfielder Jake Marisnick, and reliever Heath Hembree to low-cost free agent deals while trading starting catcher Jacob Stallings to the Marlins for right-hander Zach Thompson and a pair of minor leaguers. The club does have a series of high-end prospects on the horizon, however, including recently optioned 6’7″ shortstop Oneil Cruz and right-hander Roansy Contreras, both of whom are likely to see big-league action sooner than later. Second baseman Nick Gonzalez and righty Quinn Priester could also see the majors in 2022, while catcher Henry Davis (the top overall pick in the 2021 draft) is probably a year or two away.

Cherington’s success in locking up Hayes for the foreseeable future draws attention to questions surrounding the future of center fielder Bryan Reynolds, the other high-end talent on the Bucs’ active roster. Reynolds, who proved his 2020 struggles a fluke to the tune of a .302/.390/.522 triple-slash in 2021, is under club control through his age-30 season in 2025, reportedly turned down a number of extension proposals ahead of the 2021 season and didn’t re-engage with the club between the end of the season and the implementation of the lockout. He’s been the subject of endless trade rumors — he’s been directly linked to the Padres and Marlins this offseason — but Pittsburgh’s asking price is (understandably) sky-high. Even if they continue to go year-to-year with Reynolds (presently a Super Two, he’ll earn either $4.25MM or $4.9MM in 2022, depending on the outcome of an in-season arbitration hearing), the Bucs can expect their All-Star outfielder to play alongside their high-end up-and-coming talent for at least a few years before hitting the open market.

Indeed, while Hayes’ extension gives the Pirates the kind of cost certainty small-market clubs crave (as well as the potential for a boatload of surplus value), it isn’t likely to change their contention timetable. Even while competing in the NL Central, where the Cubs appear to be engaged in a mini-rebuild and neither the Brewers nor Cardinals seem to be interested in pushing all their chips in just yet, Pittsburgh isn’t likely to host October baseball for a few years yet.

That said, the unpredictability of prospect performance cuts in both directions, and the Pirates may have the sort of high-end prospect depth to take a big step forward as soon as 2023 — particularly if Cherington gets the go-ahead from ownership to add some payroll. At present, RosterResource projects the club to carry an Opening Day payroll of just $45MM (the lowest in Major League Baseball), and with almost nothing besides the Hayes extension committed beyond 2022. For a fanbase that hasn’t seen a meaningful game since losing the 2015 NL Wild Card Game (and still haunted by the 1992 NLCS), knowing the Bucs will hold onto their star third baseman for the bulk of his prime is likely the best news they’ve heard in a while.

{Note: Hayes left this afternoon’s game against the Cardinals with an apparent hand injury. Murray tweets that Hayes’ extension is still subject to a physical. Murray reports that Hayes suffered only a “very minor” cramp, and there’s no indication it’ll have any bearing on the long-term deal.}

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Central Notes: Indians, Reynolds, Winker, Brach, Hayes, Escobar

By Mark Polishuk | August 29, 2021 at 10:05pm CDT

The Indians were known to be looking at outfield help in the lead-up to the trade deadline, and The Athletic’s Zack Meisel reports that Cleveland checked in on a pair of major NL Central names — the Tribe spoke to the Pirates about Bryan Reynolds, and with the Reds about Jesse Winker. It isn’t known if any serious talks took place about potential deals, or if the Indians were just doing their due diligence and were quickly rebuffed.

The Pirates are reportedly viewing Reynolds as a building block and aren’t looking to move him (at least for anything less than a gigantic offer). As for the Reds, it wasn’t even certain if they were going to be deadline sellers at all, even though Cincinnati had only a 39-40 record at the end of June. However, the Reds have gone 32-21 since July 1 and now hold a 1.5-game lead over the Padres for the second NL wild card slot. Given how Winker has developed into one of the game’s best bats, it’s safe to assume the Reds won’t be very open to offseason trade inquiries about his services, short of any “too good to be true” proposals.

Examining A Potential Ke’Bryan Hayes Extension

By Steve Adams | August 6, 2021 at 9:38pm CDT

The Pirates made an extension offer to Ke’Bryan Hayes back in Spring Training, which obviously didn’t manifest in a deal, but Hayes himself confirmed to The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel this week that it wasn’t the team’s first effort. As Hayes explains, the Bucs also came to him with an offer before he’d even played in a big league game, during Spring Training 2020.

While the two sides still haven’t worked out a deal, Hayes made clear that he’s open to a long-term pact, wants to step up as a leader of future Pirates clubs and hopes to “win a championship with the team that drafted me.” For now, his focus is on a strong finish to the 2021 season.

Pirates fans, in particular, will want to check out the column for full quotes from Hayes on his future with the club. But for the purposes of this post, let’s take a look at some historical context to see just where Hayes might slot in if he and the Bucs were to approach an extension in earnest. As always, service time is crucial to these explorations, and historical precedent is quite often relevant.

Hayes will finish the 2021 season with a year-plus of Major League service time. We haven’t seen a third baseman in that service class ink a long-term pact since Jedd Gyorko’s five-year, $35MM agreement with the Padres back in 2014. That seven-year-old deal probably won’t hold much weight as a comp — particularly since even with his recent slump, Hayes has been more productive now than Gyorko was at the time. At the time of Gyorko’s extension, he carried a .242/.295/.433 line through 573 plate appearances — four percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+. He’d previously been regarded as a top-end prospect, but not to the same extent as Hayes.

Conversely, Hayes has slashed at a .282/.351/.463 pace through his first 319 Major League plate appearances. His 2020 performance vastly outweighs his 2021 performance, but his ’21 production has perhaps been sapped by a wrist injury that shelved him for two months early in the year. He’s been a better hitter than Gyorko, plays better defense, and that extension is rather dated by now.

Interestingly, however, there simply haven’t been many position players in this one-plus bracket of service time to use as a point of comparison. That’s been especially true in recent years, when touted young players have either signed before reaching a full year of service or waited to further establish themselves in the Majors. Ozzie Albies, who inked a seven-year, $35MM extension in 2019 is the most recent comparable, but that was one of the more widely panned extensions in recent memory. Hayes, presumably, would be looking to set some form of new bar for players in this general service bracket if he were to seriously entertain offers.

Of course, whether the Pirates would want any part of setting a new precedent in any service bracket remains questionable, at best. The largest contract the Pirates have ever given out was a six-year, $60MM one to catcher Jason Kendall way back in the year 2000. That pact ties them with Cleveland for the smallest franchise-record contract awarded to an individual player. Biertempfel speculates within his column that the Pirates may already have put forth a larger offer than that to Hayes. If that is indeed the case, it’d be a rather shocking effort from such a historically low-payroll club.

Pirates Activate Ke’Bryan Hayes, Option Wil Crowe

By Anthony Franco | June 3, 2021 at 4:24pm CDT

The Pirates are reinstating Ke’Bryan Hayes from the 60-day injured list, the team announced. Wil Crowe has been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis to clear active roster space. Hayes is hitting second and starting at third base in this evening’s game against the Marlins.

Hayes is arguably the most important player in the Pirates organization, so his return is a welcome development for the team and its fans alike. The 24-year-old entered the year as a popular pick to win the NL Rookie of the Year award after he burst onto the scene in 2020. Hayes, known more for his elite glove than his bat in the minors, made his MLB debut last September and hit a spectacular .376/.442/.682 over his first 95 plate appearances. No one reasonably expected him to duplicate that kind of production, but the offensive outburst coupled with his sterling defensive reputation makes it easy to envision Hayes as a cornerstone position player whom the rebuilding club can build around over the next few years.

Unfortunately, a left wrist injury sent him to the injured list just two games into the regular season. While Hayes wasn’t initially expected to miss much time, he suffered a setback in late April that has kept him out of major league action for the past two months. In his absence, the Pirates have turned to Erik González, Phillip Evans and Wilmer Difo at the hot corner to dreadful results. Pittsburgh third basemen have hit just .201/.254/.282, which ties the Royals group for the worst offensive output at the position in the league.

Crowe, acquired from the Nationals as part of the Josh Bell deal last winter, has made eight appearances (seven starts) this season. They’ve not gone well, as the righty has only managed a 7.26 ERA/5.06 SIERA with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (19.3% and 11.7%, respectively). The Pirates viewed the 26-year-old as a big league ready rotation arm when they brought him in, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back in the majors in relatively short order if he can get on track in Indianapolis. The 20-34 Bucs aren’t contenders, so the primary focus this season is determining whether younger, cost-controlled players like Crowe can be a part of the organization’s long-term future.

Hayes’ activation from the 60-day IL required the opening of a 40-man roster spot. Right-hander JT Brubaker, who went on bereavement leave last weekend, has been placed on the COVID-19 IL while he goes through intake testing protocols. That temporarily creates the 40-man vacancy for Hayes’ return, although the club will need to make another 40-man move once Brubaker clears the intake process.

Pirates Injury Notes: Kuhl, Hayes, Moran, Evans, Swaggerty

By Mark Polishuk | May 30, 2021 at 10:07pm CDT

Pirates GM Ben Cherington updated reporters (including Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) with the latest on several injured Bucs players. The most imminent news concerns Chad Kuhl, who will be activated from the 10-day injured list to start Monday’s game with the Royals.

Kuhl was placed on the IL on April 22 due to right shoulder discomfort. After tossing a pair of rehab outings at Triple-A, Kuhl will look to get back on the big league mound and turn the page on what has been a tough 2021 season. Kuhl has a 6.32 ERA over his first four starts and 15 2/3 innings, in large part due to an extreme lack of control — Kuhl has 16 walks in those 15 2/3 innings.

“Part of Chad’s rehab was not just getting healthy, it was making sure that he continued to build off what he had done in that last start and attack the strike zone,” Cherington said, referencing Kuhl’s final start before his IL visit. While Kuhl still allowed three earned runs in five innings against the Brewers on April 18, he did walk just one Milwaukee batter, while striking out six.

Ke’Bryan Hayes might also soon be returning to the Pirates, as Cherington indicated that “all reports have been good” about Hayes’ Triple-A rehab stint. The star rookie went on the IL after just two games due to left wrist inflammation, and his recovery process already hit one setback in April. With so much time missed, Cherington felt Hayes needed “almost a Spring Training progression” to get ramped up, since “the last thing we wanted to do was sort of rush him back and then something else happens because his body was just not ready….So that’s why you’ve seen maybe a little longer progression than we would in some other cases with rehab.”

Hayes has already appeared in seven games with Triple-A Indianapolis, and figures to clock a few more appearances before June 3, when he is eligible to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list. It is quite possible Hayes will be activated that day, when the Pirates begin a four-game series at home with the Marlins.

Colin Moran and Phillip Evans are also likely to be starting rehab assignment of their own, possibly as early as within the next two days, Cherington implied. Moran has been out since May 9 due to a groin injury, while Evans went on the IL on May 13 because of a hamstring strain. Evans’ versatility helped the Pirates fill several holes around the diamond before he too was lost to the injured list, while Moran has hit well as the team’s regular first baseman.

On the minor league front, Cherington said that Travis Swaggerty’s dislocated right shoulder is “going in [the] direction” of requiring surgery. Swaggerty suffered the injury while diving back to first base during a Triple-A game, and he has spent much of the last two weeks weighing recovery options. Swaggerty was the tenth overall pick of the 2018 draft, and MLB Pipeline ranks him as the ninth-best prospect in Pittsburgh’s farm system. Surgery would seemingly end the season for the outfielder, an especially tough blow since Swaggerty already lost a year of development when the 2020 minor league season was canceled.

Pirates Notes: Stallings, Hayes, Moran, Polanco, Keller

By Anthony Franco | May 16, 2021 at 3:44pm CDT

Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings left this afternoon’s game against the Giants in the seventh inning after being struck by a Buster Posey foul tip. The Pirates announced he’s dealing with a left quad contusion (via Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He was replaced by Michael Pérez. Stallings has rather quietly gotten off to a very good start to the season, hitting .257/.370/.446 over his first 119 plate appearances. Stallings and Pérez are the only backstops on Pittsburgh’s 40-man, so the team would need to make a roster move if the 31-year-old is forced to miss time. The Pirates have a pair of former big leaguers, Andrew Susac and Joe Hudson, splitting time at the position with Triple-A Indianapolis.

More out of Pittsburgh:

The organization is hopeful third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes will be ready to embark on a minor league rehab assignment within the next several days, general manager Ben Cherington said on 93.7 FM The Fan (h/t to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). One of the sport’s top prospects and a popular preseason pick to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award, Hayes has been limited to seven plate appearances this season by a wrist injury. He isn’t eligible to return from the 60-day IL until June 3. The 24-year-old got off to an incredible start to his big league career last season, hitting .376/.442/.682 over his first 95 plate appearances.
Cherington also noted that there’s some hope each of Colin Moran and Phillip Evans can return from the injured list without needing to embark on rehab assignments (via Gorman). Moran went down last week with a left groin injury, halting a strong .297/.352/.468 start to the year. Evans began the season blistering hot but quickly cooled off. He went on the shelf earlier this week with a hamstring strain.
Corner outfielder Gregory Polanco and starter Mitch Keller will continue to get opportunities despite disappointing starts to the season, writes Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic. Coming off back-to-back down years, Polanco has managed just a .206/.284/.351 line over 109 plate appearances to start 2021. Those struggles make it highly unlikely the Pirates will wind up exercising their $12.5MM option on Polanco for next season, and it’s difficult to imagine the rebuilding club will find much of a market for him at the trade deadline. Nevertheless, Cherington pointed to Polanco’s somewhat promising batted ball metrics (including an 80th percentile hard hit rate) as reason for continuing to hope for a bounce back. Keller has been up and down over his first three MLB seasons, but it’s not particularly surprising the Pirates plan to give the 25-year-old time to work through his struggles given his prospect pedigree and mid-90’s velocity.

Pirates Place Colin Moran On Injured List, Select Troy Stokes Jr.

By Anthony Franco | May 9, 2021 at 11:57am CDT

The Pirates are placing first baseman Colin Moran on the 10-day injured list with a left groin injury, Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic was among those to relay. The club has selected the contract of outfielder Troy Stokes Jr. in a corresponding move. To create 40-man roster space for Stokes, Pittsburgh transferred third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to the 60-day injured list.

Moran left yesterday afternoon’s game against the Cubs after suffering the injury trying to dive to the first base bag. His absence leaves the Pirates without one of their most productive hitters in the season’s early going. The 28-year-old is hitting .297/.352/.468 with four home runs over his first 122 plate appearances. He was a productive offensive player last year as well, when he slashed .247/.325/.472 with ten homers in 200 plate appearances.

As an arbitration-eligible player on a rebuilding Pirates’ squad, Moran could find himself on the trade market this summer. He has been more patient at the plate this year and is hitting far fewer ground balls, which could pique the interest of contending teams. Moran certainly won’t sustain a .392 batting average on balls in play, and he’s mostly been limited to first base over the past two years after breaking in as a third baseman. Still, it’s easy to see clubs having interest in a more patient and productive lefty power bat come July. The Pirates didn’t provide a timetable for Moran’s return, but there’s no indication at this point he’s in danger of an extended absence that could impact his trade value.

He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Stokes, whom the Pirates outrighted over the winter. The 25-year-old has bounced from the Brewers to the Tigers to the Pittsburgh organizations in recent seasons. He has a .233/.340/.390 mark in 391 career Triple-A plate appearances and will be making his major league debut if/when he gets into a game. Stokes likely would’ve played in the majors with Detroit last season, but an ill-timed hand fracture cost him the year.

Hayes’ transfer to the 60-day IL may raise some eyebrows, but the procedural move isn’t cause for alarm. The 60-day IL placement means Hayes must miss at least 60 days from the time of his initial IL placement (April 4), not today’s transfer. Manager Derek Shelton stressed there’s been no change in Hayes’ prognosis. The 24-year-old was known to have suffered a setback in his recovery from a wrist injury last month and has made incremental progress in the weeks since, but he was apparently not in position to return anytime before early June.

Pennsylvania Notes: Hayes, Goodwin, Howard, Realmuto

By Mark Polishuk | May 1, 2021 at 6:21pm CDT

The latest on the Keystone State’s two MLB teams…

Pirates GM Ben Cherington provided reporters (including Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) with an update on Ke’Bryan Hayes, saying that the third baseman hasn’t yet started to swing a bat, but is still “feeling improvement” in his bothersome wrist. Hayes has been sidelined since the second game of the season and has already been dealt with one setback in his recovery process. Cherington didn’t give a timetable on a potential return for Hayes, though he will be joining the Pirates on their upcoming road trip from May 3-9.
Brian Goodwin wasn’t on the list of names slated for the Pirates’ preliminary Triple-A roster, and Cherington told The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel that the team hopes to have the situation with Goodwin’s opt-out clause settled in a day or two. Goodwin’s minor league deal with the Bucs contains an opt-out clause in May, and it remains to be seen if that opt-out date could be extended, or if Goodwin could leave the organization, or even if Goodwin could be called up to the Pittsburgh roster. Gregory Polanco, Bryan Reynolds, and utilityman Phillip Evans comprise the team’s first-choice starting outfield mix, with utilityman Wilmer Difo and recent waiver claim Ka’ai Tom on the bench. The veteran Goodwin would certainly represent a more experienced, outfield-only presence on the roster, and Goodwin can play all three positions. As per the terms of the minor league deal, Goodwin would earn $1.6MM if he made Pittsburgh’s active roster.
The Phillies announced earlier this week that top pitching prospect Spencer Howard was going to be stretched out for a rotation spot, though president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski provided a bit more detail on Howard’s role to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other reporters. Howard might technically start a game, but “we’re talking about giving him two-, three-, maybe even a four-inning type of thing,” Dombrowski said. “But we’re not talking about stretching him out to those number of innings where you consider him as a starting-starting pitcher, per se.” Between Howard’s health history and the lost 2020 minor league season, the Phillies are being careful with their young hurler’s arm, targeting him for an unspecified innings limit in 2021. The Phils initially aimed to use Howard as a reliever this season, but plans changed given the lack of production from the fourth and fifth spots in the team’s rotation.
J.T. Realmuto has been out of the Phillies’ starting lineup for two straight games due to a sore left hand. The catcher suffered the injury while trying to block a wild pitch in Thursday’s game, with the ball hitting the heel of Realmuto’s hand. It isn’t yet known how much more time Realmuto will miss, though it might not be too serious a situation, considering Rafael Marchan was optioned back to the alternate training site earlier today — Realmuto and Andrew Knapp are the only catchers on Philadelphia’s 26-man roster.

NL Central Notes: Cardinals, Yelich, Anderson, Hayes

By Steve Adams and Connor Byrne | April 23, 2021 at 8:54pm CDT

Facing a run of 17 games in 17 days, the Cardinals will move to a six-man rotation for the time being, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Young righty Johan Oviedo will make at least a pair of starts to afford the remainder of the Cardinals’ rotation five days of rest between outings. Pitching coach Mike Maddux says the team is focused on “keeping guys fresher for September and we hope October” with a shift to a larger starting staff. Right-hander Miles Mikolas, who has yet to pitch this season due to shoulder troubles (after missing the 2020 season because of flexor tendon surgery), is still a few weeks away from being a viable rotation option, per Goold. As such, the Cards will rely on Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Kwang Hyun Kim, John Gant, Carlos Martinez and Oviedo to make starts for the foreseeable future.

A few more notes from the division…

Brewers star Christian Yelich won’t be activated from the injured list when he is first eligible Saturday, manager Craig Counsell tells reporters (Twitter link via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Counsell didn’t offer a potential return date for Yelich, who hasn’t played since April 11 because of a back ailment. Billy McKinney has been the Brewers’ main left field fill-in since Yelich went down, and though he hasn’t gotten on base much, his .275/.293/.550 line through 41 plate appearances is 25 percent above the league-average mark, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
McKinney hit his third homer of the season Friday, but the Brewers still took a 15-2 beating at the hands of the division-rival Cubs. The game started inauspiciously for Milwaukee, which saw starter Brett Anderson exit with an injury in the first inning after facing four batters and surrendering three earned runs on three hits. Anderson said after the game that he’s dealing with a hamstring issue and will undergo an MRI, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. The Brewers will know Saturday whether the 33-year-old southpaw will require an IL stint.
Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes suffered a setback in his left injured wrist earlier this week, but he’s “doing better” now, manager Derek Shelton said (via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, on Twitter). Shelton added that the Pirates will know more on Hayes’ status when their road trip ends Sunday. Hayes was a popular NL Rookie of the Year pick entering the season, but he has only played in two games so far, and there’s no clear timetable for his return.

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