Before Ke’Bryan Hayes even sat down at the podium between Pirates owner Bob Nutting and general manager Ben Cherington, the press conference room at PNC Park was near capacity.
Many of the Pirates’ amateur scouts were in town, including the director of amateur scouting Joe DelliCarri, so they sat in the back of the room, alongside all of the most powerful people in the front office. Manager Derek Shelton and the coaching staff stood against the wall to Hayes’ right as he sat down.
More notably, most — if not all — of the Pirates’ roster gathered, as well, lined up against the wall to listen to and support their teammate as he discussed his signing of the largest contract in team history, an eight-year, $70 million deal cementing Hayes as a cornerstone around whom the franchise can build.
For whatever happens the rest of the season, this was a chance to celebrate someone who has clearly earned a good deal of respect within the clubhouse walls.
“You look around the room and see every single staff member and every single player here, on opening day, which is a crazy day, I think it shows the commitment that they have to the organization and to [Hayes],” Shelton said.
Tuesday’s events were mostly a formality, as news broke on MLB’s opening day last Thursday that Hayes and the Pirates had agreed on terms for the extension. On that day, with the team on the road playing the St. Louis Cardinals, Hayes’ teammates gave him a standing ovation as he walked through the clubhouse.
The reaction isn’t because Hayes is the prototypical emotional leader, by any means. A mild-mannered, quiet 25-year-old, Hayes has instead gained favor by putting his nose to the grindstone and working hard for the Pirates. It’s the sort of thing teammates, coaches and front offices are attracted to.
“I mean, Ke’Bryan, I’d say he’s pretty similar to me. Pretty quiet, laid back, but once you get to know him, he opens up and is funny,” center fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “So I think the leadership he brings, like he said, it’s not like a rah-rah kind of thing. It’s more of how he goes about his business, how he handles himself, that kind of leadership, which I think holds more weight than someone who just talks the talk.”
Reynolds’ discussion with media — talking about someone else’s contract extension — felt a little on the nose. For the last couple of years, many Pirates fans would have thought it more likely that Reynolds would be the first player extended under the new front office regime.
As he has been asked before, Reynolds was pressed on whether he hoped he would be the next guy to sign a long-term deal in Pittsburgh. And as he has done before, Reynolds passed on the question, saying that issue was mostly out of his hands right now.
His focus was entirely on supporting Hayes, whom he called one of his “best buddies.”
Whatever happens with Reynolds, Hayes is now the surest long-term fixture on the Pirates, with plenty of time to continue to go about his business professionally, building a positive reputation in Pittsburgh. At the same time, the Pirates’ hope will be that Hayes can help usher in a more successful era of baseball over the lifetime of his new deal.
For his part, Cherington said that the contract makes his job easier. In building out the Pirates’ roster to get better over the next however-many years, he will no longer have to worry about third base.
The same can be said for Shelton, though in a slightly different capacity.
“It makes me smile because he’s really good,” Shelton said. “Hit the ball to him, because he catches it and throws it across. But I think it’s an important statement for our players, for our organization. But when you know you have a guy that’s going to be there for a long time, it eases your mind a little bit that you can worry about other things and you don’t have to worry about that.”
Clearly, Shelton was not alone in his joy. The Pirates inked a promising young player to a long-term deal. Probably not coincidentally, that player also has the support of everyone in the organization, including all of his teammates.
“It just tells you what kind of guy he is,” Reynolds said. “Just a good quality teammate, a good quality guy that people are excited for when good things happen.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: April 12, 2022, 7:32 p.m.
