I haven't paid a ton of attention but it does seem like there's encouraging signs in the early stretch from a few guys, maybe most notably Hayes, even if basically everyone has already punted on him. I don't think there's a lot more to say about him. He's hitting the ball hard and apparently healthy. Those things will be true until they are not. Maybe he gets a full healthy season and changes the equation a little bit.
Still, I hate to keep beating on the same dead horse, but the offense looks like it will be so unreliable. Yorke has some promise for sure, and maybe DJ Stewart can cameo at 1B and be passable, but the whole situation could have been decisively addressed in the offseason and it wasn't. Even setting aside some big deal, the one player who obviously stands out to me is Josh Naylor. It would not have changed payroll that much and would have only cost some prospects of so so caliber. Even if you just had him for the year, he would change the dynamic entirely on offense because you'd actually have a reliable masher and suddenly an offensive core of 5 guys could take shape that looks decent.
As it stands now, you just hope Reynolds stays consistent, but then also pretty much need Hayes and/or Suwinski in that group. It's just the same team we've had for multiple years. Even assuming the best from Hayes (by which I mean above average offense including something like 15 SB / 15 HR, not the MVP type stuff he did for a month one time) and generously penciling Horowitz in (I think there's a real chance this injury lingers), the core group is still on the low end of middle of the pack at best.
