While watching the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, I noticed something with the swing from Ke’Bryan Hayes.
Hayes stands square to the plate this year, and has a sort of toppling action down onto the ball from a top-heavy swing. His upper half collapses over the zone, with his bat coming through at a steep, slicing angle. The movement made me think that Hayes would likely have some extreme results hitting the ball to the opposite field.
That was confirmed when looking at the numbers. Hayes is pulling the ball 22% of the time this year, which is down from 27% last year. He’s hitting more straightaway shots than last year. His batted ball profile this year matches his 2021 season, which wasn’t a good outcome. He’s also seeing his worst results with exit velocity and barrels this year. Only 2021 was worst from a launch angle standpoint.
The batted ball outcomes are one thing. Seeing where Hayes is getting hits is another. Here is his breakdown in 2024:
There’s a trend of opposite field hits, with a lot of grounders on the left side. He has three home runs this year, all to the pull side. However, his top-half momentum at the plate pushes away from the pull side, making it unlikely that he’s going to be hitting for power.
My thought while watching him was that he could benefit from opening his stance. This way his movement toward the plate would be to square off, allowing his second movement to be hitting naturally from that squared off position.
In watching his 2023 highlights, I noticed that Hayes was doing exactly that.
Hayes is still going to trend with opposite field hits, due to the top half moving in that direction. Having the open stance allows him to pull the ball more often. His top half does move toward right field, but his hips fly open to the pull side. This leads to a disconnected approach between the upper and lower body, which could be mitigated with an open stance to push the hip movement in the same direction as the eventual upper body movement. His hit profile last year shows better pull-side results with the open stance, along with opposite field power.
