North Shore Tavern Mound Visit: Hayes' best plays in Gold Glove season

When coming up through the minors, many reports and scouts predicted that Ke'Bryan Hayes is a future Gold Glover and one of the best defenders in the sport.

On Sunday, it became official.

Hayes is finally a Gold Glove winner after falling short on an innings played technicality in 2021 and losing the vote to Nolan Arenado in 2022, despite having the better defensive stats. Those defensive peripherals were just as impressive in 2023. His 21 defensive runs saved and 17 Outs Above Average were both tops among third basemen, and his .984 fielding percentage was tops at the hot corner in the Senior Circuit. Those counting defensive stats become even more impressive when you consider that he as sidelined over a month with injuries. Had it not been for those injured list stints, he could have potentially led the league in DRS or OAA.

Anyway you want to slice it, Hayes is one of the best defenders in the game, if not the best. So let's look at some of the best's best.

While Baseball Savant has a tracker that breaks down catch probability for outfielders, they don't have a leaderboard for infielders and the plays they convert. Measuring outs by hit probabilities is iffy also because so much of it has to do with fielder positioning over the play the fielder made. All this is to say that there is subjectivity on the author's part when compiling this list, but I want to highlight one point in particular: Hayes is elite regardless of what direction the ball is hit.

Most infielder's have a strong side, tending to have a better first step to either their left, right or straight ahead to charge the ball. Hayes' 17 OAA can be broken down by where he got those extra outs. By Baseball Savant's measurement, he had five OAA on balls that were in, five that were to his right and six that were to his left. (He also had +1 OAA on balls he had to go back on, but that low figure is more a product of infielder rarely getting a chance to make impact plays on balls behind them.) Only he and Thairo Estrada of the Giants had at least 5 OAA in each of the those directions. Going by Baseball Savant's run prevention, Hayes broke even in terms of his arm strength. Those runs he saved was due to his range.

So when looking at Hayes' best plays, let's focus on some of the things he does so well in each of these areas.

MOVING IN

No infielder was better at moving in on the ball in 2022 than Hayes, and he ranked near the top in 2023. For most third basemen, that means they do well on the barehand play, but Hayes doesn't try that too often. He'll still opt to get it in the glove first, like he did on April 22 on this Kevin Newman dribbler:

That type of swinging bunt can often result in an infield hit for a speedy player like Newman, but Hayes is able to field it cleanly and make an accurate throw to first. The most important part of the play, though, is the transfer. Hayes never actually grabs the ball from his glove. He flips it to his throwing hand when it is close to the mitt to shave a fraction of a second:

Hayes didn't exactly have a great angle to potentially barehand this ball, and since he had to play the short hop, it could have taken a funky hop and resulted in a base hit. But since he can transfer the ball so quickly, he can field it cleanly with the glove, get his body into a good position to throw and not have to move his head off Connor Joe at first while he is preparing to make the throw. This is one of those plays that you make on a major-league diamond because you did it enough times on a backlot or spring training field.

Ok, but what about when he doesn't have those fractions of a second to spare to get it into his glove? There was this gem Aug. 3 against the Brewers where you can see how he adjusts his body to get himself into the right angle for a throw to first:

Bonus points for keeping that throw accurate while throwing against his body while being moments away from taking a tumble.

TO HIS RIGHT

This is usually what separates the good from bad defensive third basemen. A ground ball down the line can often result in a double if the third baseman can't get it, and Hayes had the most OAA of all third basemen on plays to his right.

His most iconic play in his young career was his incredible throw from the hole to get Yadier Molina in 2021, and while this robbery of Nelson Velazquez in Kansas City can't quite compare, he made this throw look easy from foul territory:

There most have been something in that Kansas City barbeque, because Hayes made several stellar plays to his right that series, including an impressive pick and toss onto second base to help Johan Oviedo in his two-hit shutout:

Watch the footwork on those plays. The front foot stays planted, but there are plenty of times where a young infielder will have their back leg fly open on the throw, resulting in a wild relay. There's not a lot of time to make that play happen, but Hayes is able to stay steady with his feet, resulting in two solid throws across the diamond.

TO HIS LEFT

Technically speaking, Hayes was at his best this year whenever he was going to his left. A lot of that has to do with catches like this:

That's just a great read and a great first step to rob Joey Meneses of a line drive that had a .700 expected batting average.

But when it comes to Hayes moving to his left, two plays stand out, mostly because of the throws. The first is this 270-degree turn in Tampa in early May:

Christian Bethancourt hit that right in the 5.5 hole, but Hayes is able to get to it, make a near full rotation and deliver a strike to first. He doesn't have a chance to plant the front leg, so the back leg does cross over, but it's still on line. It's a play that could have gone so wrong, but Hayes knows he has a little more time because Bethancourt isn't a great runner and doesn't fire it as hard as he could. It was a safer way to cap an extraordinary play.

And then this double play...

I don't know what can be said here. This and the Newman play are my humble picks for the best of the year. Getting to the ball is impressive enough, but most third basemen would probably try to do a spin and throw, like Hayes did in Tampa. Instead, Hayes throws from just one foot onto second to start a double play. And it was a perfect throw too, putting Ji Hwan Bae out of the base runner's path to perfectly turn the double play. This is an outrageously good play.

It's the type of play that won Hayes this Gold Glove. There's a good chance it won't be his last, though it isn't going to exactly be smooth sailing. Arenado could bounce back next year. Ryan McMahon is a stud in Denver. Perhaps Matt Chapman signs with a National League club this winter. Hayes will probably never be afforded to luxury of winning a Gold Glove more on reputation than results.

But the results have been outstanding throughout his major-league career, and the product this year was an elite defender who was strong in every way he could move across the diamond. The best defenders in baseball can do it all, and Hayes certainly has proved he is one of the best.