{"id":366316,"date":"2025-12-24T16:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366316\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T16:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:59:10","slug":"yankees-interested-royals-remain-interested-in-austin-hays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366316\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Interested, Royals Remain Interested In Austin Hays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Post\u2019s Jon Heyman<\/a> reports this morning that the Royals \u201cremain interested\u201d in signing Austin Hays<\/a>, despite having recently acquired outfielders Isaac Collins<\/a> and Lane Thomas<\/a>. This lines up with previous reporting<\/a> suggesting that president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo is still searching for upgrades after his outfielders finished last in MLB in runs scored, RBI, on-base percentage, OPS, wRC+, and FanGraphs WAR in 2025. Heyman first connected Hays and the Royals earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heyman also notes<\/a> that the Yankees have \u201cchecked in\u201d on Hays, although they might only be interested in adding him if they can\u2019t re-sign Cody Bellinger<\/a>, whom the New York Post reporter describes as their top target. In contrast to the Royals, the Yankees led the majors in most offensive categories from the outfield this past year, including runs scored, home runs, RBI, all three triple-slash metrics, wRC+, and fWAR. Bellinger was a key contributor to that effort, and it\u2019s no surprise the Bronx Bombers would love to team him up with Aaron Judge<\/a> and Trent Grisham<\/a> once again. Their interest in retaining Bellinger is hardly breaking<\/a> news<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is, however, the first time the Yankees have been linked to Hays. Heyman reported<\/a> a month ago that Kyle Tucker<\/a> could be their \u201cbackup plan\u201d if they missed out on Bellinger, and needless to say, Hays would not be the same kind of outfield upgrade. In fact, it\u2019s less clear if Hays would be an upgrade at all. The young switch-hitter Jasson Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> certainly has a higher ceiling, while Amed Rosario<\/a>, though limited in his outfield experience, is already on the roster to fill a righty-batting utility role. Whether the Yankees\u2019 reported interest in Hays suggests a lack of faith in Dom\u00ednguez to become an everyday player, a lack of faith in Rosario to play the outfield, or simply GM Brian Cashman doing his due diligence remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Heyman reported<\/a> that the Mets\u2019 front office had engaged in conversations about signing Hays<\/a>. Considering the Mets lost several outfielders to free agency this winter and traded away two more, they could certainly find playing time for the veteran in 2026. Of course, he might be more of a plan B in Queens as well, with the Mets having also expressed interest<\/a> in signing Bellinger and trading for<\/a> White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hays, 30, is coming off a solid season for Cincinnati. In 103 games and 416 PA, he slashed .266\/.315\/.453 with 15 home runs and a 105 wRC+. He also went 7-for-7 on the bases while playing capably in left field. As usual, he was particularly effective against left-handed pitching (.949 OPS, 155 wRC+). While Hays is unlikely to be an everyday player, at least not on a contending team, he has proven he can be a valuable role player over his eight MLB seasons with the Orioles, Phillies, and Reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Post\u2019s Jon Heyman reports this morning that the Royals \u201cremain interested\u201d in signing Austin Hays,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[31172,49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-366316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-austin-hays","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}