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Indianapolis Indians

Pittsburgh's No. 2 Prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes Homers in MLB Debut

September 2, 2020 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


INDIANAPOLIS - The Tribe's 2019 MiLB Rawlings Gold Glove Award winning third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, who entered the 2020 season rated as Pittsburgh's No. 2 prospect and No. 49 overall by Baseball America, doubled and homered in his major league debut last night vs. Chicago (NL). He is the second position player and fifth member of Indy's 2019 squad to make his debut this season, following infielder Will Craig and pitchers JT Brubaker, Cody Ponce and Brandon Waddell.

The 23-year-old was recalled prior to Tuesday's game and made his first MLB start at third base, batting seventh in the lineup. He grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats before notching his first career hit in the sixth inning, an RBI double off Jon Lester.

After a 71-minute rain delay with the Pirates down 6-5, he sent a solo homer off Dan Winkler over the center field wall at PNC Park to tie the game in the eighth. Hayes scored the game-tying run again in the 10th as the automatic runner to begin the inning, sliding under a Willson Contreras tag on a soft grounder to the pitcher. He finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored.

Outside of three rehab appearances with Short-Season A West Virginia due to a dislocated left index finger, Hayes spent the entire 2019 season with Indianapolis. He finished the season with a .989 fielding percentage on only three errors with Indy, the best mark among qualifying third basemen in both the minor and major leagues. As a result, the phenom became just the second player in minor league history to win three consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, joining Ramon Conde (1959-61) who also played for the Tribe from 1962-70.

At the plate, Hayes hit .265 (113-for-427) and tied for eighth in the International League with 30 doubles in 110 games for the Tribe after finishing the season strong in August. He was named the IL Player of the Week on Aug. 26 after hitting .522 (12-for-23) with one home run, one double, four RBI and a 1.238 OPS the week prior. He finished August as the Tribe's Player of the Month with a .327 average (34-for-104) and two four-hit games (Aug. 1 at Toledo and Aug. 23 vs. Louisville).

After being named the Tribe's Rookie of the Year at the end of the 2019 season while earning a third straight MiLB.com Organization All-Star nod as Pittsburgh's top farmhand at the hot corner, Hayes was added to Pittsburgh's 40-man roster in November and joined his third MLB Spring Training squad in 2020. Through 13 spring games, he hit .280 (7-for-25) with two extra-base hits. He was then assigned to Pittsburgh's alternate site at the start of Summer Camp.

Hayes was selected by the Pirates in the first round (32nd overall) of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas. He is the son of 14-year major leaguer Charlie Hayes.

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