That will be nice to not have looming.
With Hayes, I think we're moving into a period of real worry with his bat, even if the defense is actually so good that he's still a very valuable player (and by that measure -- I understand that this is counterintuitive, but it's still the case -- the contract is perfectly fine). He is clearly not the same since the collision at the plate, which is the second year in a row that a big, lingering injury has impacted him.
More worryingly, I think, is that this kind of hitter is the guy he was in the minors. More power is not going to come until he changes his approach, and I am not confident that he will. All of the underlying data suggests that he should hit for increased power, but his swing doesn't get any loft at all, and he doesn't hit the ball at the right contact point to get results that are within his reach.
It's definitely a little easy to just cherry pick this stuff, but it's all right there. It's funny, as Hayes would probably benefit from selling out more and striking out more, because he'd start hitting bombs and more doubles. As it stands right now, he's basically a singles hitter who is prone to some streakiness, i.e., not the guy you want hitting in any of the important spots in the order on a better team.
