The Pittsburgh Pirates traded the three players in the offseason who were arguably their biggest fan favorites.

First baseman Josh Bell was dealt to the Washington Nationals and right-handers Jameson Taillon and Joe Musgrove were shipped to the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres, respectively.

Thus, the Pirates are left with a roster filled with many players who are nameless and faceless to most of the fanbase with the season set to begin Thursday against the Cubs at Chicago.

All the trades have led to the most likely player to emerge of the face of the franchise being a rookie third baseman who has logged just 24 games and 95 plate appearances in the major leagues.

That is a lot to ask from a quiet 24-year-old still trying to establish himself as a big leaguer. Yet the Pirates feel KeBryan Hayes, whose father Charlie played third base in the bigs for 14 seasons, has the even-keeled personality to handle the responsibility.

I think he'll probably play 15 years in the big leagues and never change, manager Derek Shelton said. That's who he is. He's the same person every day, he was the same person every day when he came to the park last year and expect that to kind of go forward.

Hayes was one of the very few bright spots for the Pirates during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season in which they had the worst record in the major leagues at 19-41. The right-handed hitter made his debut Sept. 1 and batted .376/.442/.682 with five home runs and 17 RBIs.

According to Baseball-References calculations, Hayes had 1.9 WAR. That means he was worth nearly two full wins over a replacement player despite logging less than a full month in the major leagues.

Hayes topped all major league rookies in that metric. He finished sixth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting despite his limited playing time in the 60-game season.

The biggest surprise of Hayes performance were the home runs. He went deep just 25 times in the minor leagues over five minor league seasons and 465 games after being selected in the supplemental first round of the 2015 amateur draft following his senior year at Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas.

Hayes top attributes in the minor leagues were outstanding defense and the ability to spray line drives from gap to gap.

I mean I feel like Ive always had the power, Hayes said. I just feel like I wasnt putting my body in a consistent position to hit the ball hard. I feel like Ive always had stretches where Ill hit the ball really hard, but it would be for a game or two and then for the next two, three games I wouldn't.

Hayes has hit the ball hard again this year during spring training. In 15 exhibition games, he is 19 for 46 (.413) with six doubles, two triples and one homer.

The Grapefruit League statistics have only heightened the fans expectations. However, Hayes understands he is likely to go through the same growing pains in the major leagues that most young players experience.

Theres going to be a lot of ups, a lot of downs but I'm looking forward to it, Hayes said. I mean I only played like 3-4 teams, so Ill get to play a bunch of teams across the league, so Im excited for that. And yeah, I feel like I still have a lot to prove.

Meanwhile, expectations are low for the Pirates as they are in the early stages of a massive rebuild under second-year general manager Ben Cherington. Hayes, though, is confident Cherington can eventually turn around a franchise that hasnt played in the World Series since beating the Baltimore Orioles in 1979.

Once we add guys and we have younger guys in the system that are really good and once we get all that together and the chemistry is good, I think were going to be really good, Hayes said.

And Hayes is ready to take on the responsibility of leadership despite his limited experience.

Just each day just making sure just kind of checking in on like everyone in the clubhouse and being able to build chemistry, Hayes said. I feel like chemistry within your clubhouse is one of the bigger things with winning teams.