CHICAGO — When Ke’Bryan Hayes left Sunday’s game with a right hand contusion, it wasn’t clear what exactly happened.
There hadn’t been a play on the field that stood out as particularly painful, and there hadn’t been camera shots of the Pirates’ third baseman grimacing after a specific swing. Manager Derek Shelton said after the game that the injury happened “during the game at some point,” but left it at that.
In hindsight, Shelton was likely trying to protect his player by hiding the actual cause.
Before the Pirates opened their series against the White Sox on Tuesday, Hayes spoke to the media about his injury. Presumably after his sixth inning at-bat ― he exited the game at the beginning of the eighth inning — Hayes was frustrated after striking out looking. He went into the dugout, took off his helmet and slammed it. The recoil caused a blood blister in between his index and middle fingers, and it swelled up and bruised after that.
Eventually, Hayes couldn’t play through the pain. He said Tuesday that he can throw a little bit, or at least tough it out enough to get sufficient velocity on his throws, but he is still not swinging a bat.
The outburst is understandable to an extent, given both the Pirates’ struggles this season and Hayes’ own up-and-down year at the plate, but it is also surprising, especially for a player who prides himself on staying cool and being even-keeled. For that reason, Hayes is frustrated now that he’s missing more games from such a self-inflicted injury.
“I missed two months already this year,” Hayes said. “I’ve got to be a lot smarter than that. It’s not fair to my teammates, the manager, making the lineup and all that stuff, so just got to be smarter than that, especially with all the time I’ve missed.”
On the bright side, if there is one, Shelton said immediately after Sunday’s game that Hayes had X-rays and they came back negative. As of right now, his injury is still being categorized as day-to-day, and the Pirates plan to reexamine the hand Wednesday as they decide his next steps.
For now, it’s just taking it easy, employing plenty of ice and waiting to see how the wound heals before Hayes begins to consider swinging the bat again or getting back into game action.
“The bat kind of hurt,” Hayes said. “Throwing was kind of okay. I still felt it a little bit with the throwing, but I could get through the throwing side of it, just the hitting. So tomorrow, I’m going to come back and see with the bat, if I can swing it.”
Roster moves
The Pirates announced prior to Tuesday’s game that utility man Michael Chavis was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right elbow strain. The injury was sustained Saturday, when Chavis tried to make what would have been a stupendous diving catch but ended up landing awkwardly on his arm.
Chavis took Sunday off and had Monday’s off day to try to heal, but Shelton said it still didn’t feel quite right, so they decided to give him some time on the shelf to make sure it heels completely.
In his place, the Pirates called up utility man Hoy Park from Class AAA Indianapolis. This will be Park’s second stint in the big leagues with the Pirates. He hit .300 in his first 11 games with the club, but finished his stint by going 0-for-20 in his last seven games before being sent down.
Now, he’ll get another shot.
There also appears to be more opportunities on the horizon for a few other Pirates. They employed a taxi squad for this trip, which included Phillip Evans, Shelby Miller and Max Kranick. As the Post-Gazette reported over the past two days, Evans and Miller are expected to be activated with the Pirates and can be Wednesday, when the rosters expand to 28 players for the rest of the season.
Apparently there is also a chance that Kranick is activated to make a spot start in the near future, too, since the Pirates have not commonly used taxi squads of late this season. When that could happen remains to be seen, but the possibility remains, and at the very least, more roster moves could be expected as soon as Wednesday.
“Because we do have the ability to expand the roster tomorrow, we do have a couple of guys with us that are on the taxi squad today and then would have the capability of being activated tomorrow,” Shelton said. “Some will be activated, some will not.”
