{"id":125210,"date":"2026-07-05T21:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=125210"},"modified":"2026-07-05T21:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:17:10","slug":"pirates-hayes-stafura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/07\/05\/pirates-hayes-stafura\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes Trade Has Become a Massive Win for the Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a team salary dumps a player, the only positive they\u2019re likely looking for is getting money off the payroll. During last year\u2019s trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Pirates committed a salary dump trade<\/a>, sending longtime third baseman Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/a> to the Cincinnati Reds. They received back former second-round pick Sammy Stafura and veteran relief pitcher Taylor Rogers<\/a>. However, while the Pirates\u2019 main priority was to get Hayes\u2019 remaining three years, $29 million guaranteed, off the books, the trade looks like it\u2019ll bear much more fruit than just saving money.<\/p>\n

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The Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes Trade Is Giving the Pirates More Than Just Salary Relief<\/h2>\n

Sammy Stafura Is Having a Promising Season<\/h3>\n

Stafura has spent most of 2026 at High-A Greensboro. He is batting .306\/.376\/.562 with a .404 wOBA and 128 wRC+ over 141 plate appearances for the Grasshoppers. The infielder is showing off both power and speed. He already has eight home runs with a .256 isolated slugging percentage. Plus, he has gone 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. Stafura struggled in parts of 13 games at A-Ball Bradenton; however, that was during a rehab stint.<\/p>\n

\"Current
Daytona Tortugas shortstop Sammy Stafura (3) hits the ball against Palm Beach Cardinals on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024 at Jackie Robinson Ballpark. \u00a9 Nadia Zomorodian\/News-Journal \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, there are some question marks in Stafura\u2019s game, especially regarding his plate discipline. While he has walked at a 10.6% rate at High-A, he has also struck out at a 30.6% rate. His contact rate is just 65.2%, and his called +swinging strike percentage comes in at 30%. Stafura has cut down on the K\u2019s (27.9% K rate) while walking more frequently (14% BB rate) since returning to Greensboro; however, he\u2019ll need to continue working on this.<\/p>\n

Stafura currently ranks as the Pirates\u2019 19th-best prospect by Baseball America and their 10th-best by MLB Pipeline. Both praise his athleticism, speed, and fielding prowess at multiple infield positions. However, both are also not very bullish on his current look in the box given his plate discipline concerns. They also acknowledge his power potential. Given how well Stafura has done recently, with a 174 wRC+ since returning to High-A, he may move up, both the minor league ladder and prospect rankings, very soon.<\/p>\n

Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes Has Continued To Struggle in Cincinnati<\/h3>\n

When the Pirates traded Hayes, he was batting a meager .234\/.281\/.290 with a .255 wOBA and a 58 wRC+ between 2024-25. He walked just 5.8% of the time and hit for very little power. Hayes went yard just six times over 788 plate appearances with an isolated slugging percentage well below .100, coming in at .056. Of the very few positives he brought to the batter\u2019s box, Hayes had a solid 19.8% strikeout rate and stole 21 bases. Of course, Hayes was as good as anyone when it came to third base defense. He had +26 defensive runs saved with +21 outs above average.<\/p>\n

\"Cincinnati
Cincinnati Reds third baseman Ke’bryan Hayes (3) runs for first as he grounds out in the third inning of the MLB National League game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals at Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday, May 14, 2026. The Reds led 2-0 after three innings. \u00a9 Sam Greene\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hayes showed more offensive output with the Reds during the rest of 2025; however, it was only a marginal step up, as his wRC+ rose to 82. However, 2026 has mostly been a disaster for Hayes<\/a>. His first 128 plate appearances yielded a .142\/.195\/.225 triple-slash and 10 wRC+ before landing on the injured list in late May<\/a> with lumbar bulging discs. His third-base defense also suffered: while he had +7 DRS, he had zero OAA.<\/p>\n

Back issues have been a recurring issue for Hayes, unfortunately. After a breakout 2023, Hayes only played in parts of 96 contests in 2024 when disc problems started affecting his play. The back issues have sapped much of Hayes\u2019 raw power. His exit velocity from 2020 through 2023 came in at 91.3 MPH. Since then, he has an 89.3 MPH EV. He attempted to change his swing and stance to accommodate his chronic back issues<\/a>; however, nothing has seemed to help.<\/p>\n

Even the Other Part of the Trade Is Working in the Pirates\u2019 Favor<\/h3>\n

Soon after the Pirates traded Hayes to the Reds, they flipped Rogers to the Chicago Cubs for minor leaguer Ivan Brethrow. Rogers struggled badly with the Cubs, allowing ten earned runs on 18 hits, four of which were home runs, over 17.2 innings. Meanwhile, Brethrow has posted a respectable 102 wRC+ over 248 plate appearances in the Pirates\u2019 system. The outfielder has missed time with injuries this year, but has posted about league-average numbers when healthy in the minor leagues since the Pirates acquired him.<\/p>\n

Rarely does a team dumping a bloated contract in a salary dump move benefit far beyond just getting salary relief. However, the Pirates may benefit a ton in the very near future. Stafura has looked outstanding this year and is likely on pace to reach Double-A Altoona well before the end of the 2026 season. Hayes has not performed well, and the already glaring concerns with back problems are once again holding him back from his full potential.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a team salary dumps a player, the only positive they\u2019re likely looking for is getting money off the payroll. During last year\u2019s trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Pirates committed a salary dump trade, sending longtime third baseman Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes to the Cincinnati Reds. They received back former second-round pick Sammy Stafura and veteran relief pitcher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5765,"featured_media":125215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"749","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,35,26],"tags":[3070,1308,3004],"class_list":["post-125210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-pirates","tag-kebryan-hayes","tag-mlb-prospects","tag-taylor-rogers"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125218,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125210\/revisions\/125218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}