Former Pittsburgh Pirate Ke’Bryan Hayes was named the 2025 National League Gold Glove Defender at third base, making this the second time in his career that he has received the award. Though Hayes’ game
is by no means complete, it certainly seems to me that given his talents, the Pirates should not have traded him to the rival Cincinnati Reds.
Coming off the heels of his second Gold Glove Award it’s clear that Hayes had a great 2025 campaign defensively. He finished the season committing just five errors and had a .987 fielding percentage which led all third baseman in Major League Baseball. On top of that, he also led all third baseman with defensive runs saved (19) for the fourth time in a five-season stretch, while also leading his position Outs Above Average (21) for the the third time in the last four seasons.
With Cincinnati, Hayes experienced the postseason for the first time in his career, with Red’s manager Terry Francona saying that trading for Hayes helped their defense at the right time in the year.
“I think Hayes has solidified us at third base like nobody’s business,” said Francona. “And he’s swung the bat plenty good enough. That’s been terrific.”
The Pirates had been shopping Hayes all year and finally found a trade partner at the deadline, sending him to Cincinnati for Taylor Rodgers, Sammy Stafura and cash. Rodgers was then traded to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan Brethowr. Pittsburgh would ultimately end up with two prospects, neither of which are Major League ready or a third baseman. The team also offloaded the large contract that Hayes received in 2022.
During his time with the Pirates Hayes would receive criticism for his offensive output, or lack thereof. Since he received one of the largest contracts in Pirates’ history, many thought that he would be an all-time franchise player, but offensively, he never really took that next step. He has a career slash line of .253/.290/.596 and had a career high 15 home runs in the 2023 season. 2023 overall was Hayes’ best season, hitting .271/.309/.453 with 61 RBIs, 134 hits and 224 total bases. That season would also mark the first time he received the Gold Glove Award.
Outside of 2023, Hayes never jumped off the stat sheet offensively, as he dealt with back injuries on several occasions and attempted to change his swing to get back to that 2023 output. All that to say, I still consider it a mistake that Pittsburgh traded him in the first place.
Organizationally, the Pirates have gotten very few things right in the 21st century, and Hayes no longer being their third baseman will prove to be another one of those blunders. I understand he had shortcomings offensively, but he was far from the problem in the lineup. I could understand if he was an anchor on the team, but on a team full of offensive woes, he was far from being the worst. Bryan Reynolds led the Pirates in batting among qualified hitters, but still only topped out at .245, with Oneil Cruz finishing with a .200 average. Even the top performers on the Pirates weren’t really performing all that well, as the team finished with fewest runs in baseball as well as being in the bottom five of total hits and team batting average.
So Hayes isn’t weighing his team down with his limited offensive game, but he does clearly affect winning defensively as the best defensive third baseman in the National League. Modern baseball is obsessed with five-tool players, but the reality is that not every ball player is going to be Shohei Ohtani or Mookie Betts, and there’s nothing wrong with that. No one was asking Dennis Rodman to score 30 points a game, that’s what he had Michael Jordan for. Mario Lemieux didn’t need to concern himself with imposing his will and scrapping, he had Jiri Slegr to get in the trenches instead. These are TEAM sports we’re talking about, unfortunately Hayes did not have the privilege of having any teammates that could affect baseball in a way that would allow him to just be great in his own way.
Make no mistake, Hayes is great in his own way. He became the first third baseman in the National League to interrupt Nolan Arenado’s ten-year streak of winning the Gold Glove Award, was the fastest Pirate to reach 20 career extra-base hits in the modern era, and was projected to be yet another great Pirates’ defender.
I wish we could’ve gotten more out of Hayes, but it is probably in his own best interest that he no longer plays for Pittsburgh anyway. With that being said his time as a Pirate was memorable and I hope they take care of him in Cincinnati.
