Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes is confident about his overall readiness heading into the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season.
No one connected to the Pirates’ organization—general manager Ben Cherington and field manager Derek Shelton included—seem to be holding their collective breaths on Hayes’s physical condition coming into camp.
On Wednesday, pitchers and catchers reported to Pittsburgh’s “Southern Home” in Southwest Florida, in the City of Bradenton. Although position players aren’t required to appear in camp at Pirate City for another week, Hayes was among several infielders and outfielders to enter the clubhouse in the early morning hours.
After a disappointing 2024 season, one in which Hayes appeared in only 96 of the team’s scheduled 162 games due to injuries, after an off-season of intense rehabilitation due to nagging back issues, the 2023 National League Rawlings Gold Glove-winning third baseman is anxious to make up for lost time.
“I had a good off-season. The last few years have been tough, and I had to figure out this back thing,” Hayes told The Epoch Times after the club’s first workout of the spring. “I went right into lifting weights, building up my core, and now, I feel really great. No setbacks.”
Hayes credits core exercises for his overall increased body strength. Those back issues that have been hampering him, resulting in the 27-year-old second-generation MLB infielder finding himself on the league’s injured list twice during the 2023 season, and twice last season, appear to be a thing of the past.
Being healthy and on the field for Hayes could only increase the Pirates’ chances of improving on their 76–86 2024 record.
Hayes visited Dr. Robert G. Watkins MD, a renowned orthopedic spine surgeon in Los Angeles this past off-season. Watkins, who specializes in cervical and lumbar injuries, consults for more than one dozen NFL teams, five MLB clubs, and NBA organizations, as well. The program given to Hayes to follow has the talented third baseman feeling like he did prior to when his back issues began nagging him during the 2022 season.
“I’m ready for it,” Hayes tells of the upcoming 31-game Grapefruit League schedule beginning in 10 days with the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Florida. “Dr. Watkins was familiar with what I was experiencing from golfers and football players he was treating. That made me feel good. Now, I feel faster, stronger, and I’m moving around like I used to.”
Pirates’ skipper Shelton is also among those eager to have a healthy Hayes contribute to the club’s offense and defense.
“When he’s healthy, [Hayes] is the best defender in baseball. I like his swings. They look free and easy. [He] is extremely important to our club,” he told The Epoch Times.
Erasing disappointments from going on the injured list four times over the past two seasons, to optimism for the 2025 season, appears to be a process Hayes is winning. He is expecting as much of an effort from himself as his legions of fans are clamoring for. Having not played in a Pirates’ game since last mid-August, Hayes’ level of confidence is high that he can surpass his career-high 2022 season of appearing in 136 games.
Having made his Pirates’ debut during the 2020 season, and being a regular in Shelton’s lineup over the past four seasons, Hayes is one of more than a dozen infielders in camp in search of earning a spot on Pittsburgh’s 26-man opening-day roster. In reviewing the candidates, Hayes is one of a few infielders that are “gimmes” on the Pirates roster, when it comes to the starting lineup for the regular season opener on Thursday, March 27 with the Marlins in Miami.
“I always want to put myself in position to hit the ball hard. By keeping my body healthy, my numbers will come,” Hayes said of being, for the most part, pain-free.
Keeping symptoms nonexistent will be Hayes’s major challenge, when he starts taking ground balls and hitting in the batting cages in Bradenton. Keeping any issues that may pop up during the season to a level Hayes refers to as “manageable,” is vital, he said. The exercises that Hayes has become accustomed to don’t have a temporary shelf life. He plans on utilizing them for the foreseeable future.
In April 2022, Hayes signed an eight-year contract extension with the Pirates.
