Austin Charles Hedges (born August 18, 1992) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut with the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

in 2015 and has also played for the Cleveland Indians/Guardians.

Early life

Hedges was born on August 18, 1992, in

San Juan Capistrano, California San Juan Capistrano (Spanish for "St. John of Capistrano") is a city in Orange County, California, located along the Orange Coast. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census. San Juan Capistrano was founded by the Spanish in 1776, when St. ...

, to Charlie and Pam Hedges. As an only child whose parents worked after he came home from school, Hedges spent large parts of his childhood throwing a

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

ball at a wall and catching it with his bare hand. His

Little League Baseball Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) players. In addition to Hedges,

Matt Chapman Matthew James Chapman (born April 28, 1993) is an American professional baseball third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Oakland Athletics. Chapman made his MLB debut with Oakland in ...

Zach Davies Zachary Ryan Davies (born February 7, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondba ...

, David Fletcher,

Joe Musgrove Joseph Anthony Musgrove (born December 4, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played within the Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, and Pittsburgh Pirates organ ...

Michael Lorenzen Michael Clifton Lorenzen (born January 4, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher and outfielder for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Angels. ...

, and

Bryce Harper Bryce Aron Max Harper (born October 16, 1992) is an American professional baseball right fielder and designated hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). Prior to his arrival in Philadelphia, Harper played for the Wash ...

all played for the Aztecs.

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues

Hedges was drafted by the

in the second round of the

2011 Major League Baseball draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the first ...

out of

JSerra Catholic High School JSerra Catholic High School is a private coeducational Catholic high school located in San Juan Capistrano, California. Named after Saint Junípero Serra, the school was founded by parents in 2003 and is an independent school sanctioned by the ...

San Juan Capistrano San Juan Capistrano (Spanish for "St. John of Capistrano") is a city in Orange County, California, located along the Orange Coast. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census. San Juan Capistrano was founded by the Spanish in 1776, when St. ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He had committed to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, but signed with the Padres for $3 million. Prior to the 2012 season,

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

ranked Hedges as the Padres fifth best prospect. Playing for the

Fort Wayne TinCaps The Fort Wayne TinCaps are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They are located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and play their home games at Parkview Field. They won their lone Midwest Le ...

of the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

, Hedges hit .279/.334/.451 with 10

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in 96 games. Scouts considered Hedges to be a stand-out defender who had surprised them with his batting at Class-A. Austin Hedges

In 2013, MLB.com ranked Hedges the fourth best catching prospect in the minors. He started the year with the Class-A Advanced

Lake Elsinore Storm The Lake Elsinore Storm are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The Storm plays their home games at Lake Elsinore Diamond (Pete Lehr Field), which opened in 1994; the park se ...

where he hit .270 with four home runs in 66 games. He was promoted to the Double-A

San Antonio Missions The San Antonio Missions are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They are located in San Antonio, Texas, and are named for the Spanish missions around which the city was founded. ...

in August where he hit .224 in 20 games. He was also named to the

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League ...

in 2013. Hedges received a non-roster invitation to the big league spring training camp for the second time in 2014. He was ranked #27 on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects list coming into the season. He spent the season with San Antonio, where he hit .225 with 6 home runs over 113 games while throwing out 38% of opposing base runners.

San Diego Padres

In 2015, Hedges joined the

El Paso Chihuahuas The El Paso Chihuahuas are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They are located in El Paso, Texas, and play their home games at Southwest University ...

of the

Class AAA Triple-A (officially Class AAA) has been the highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946. Currently, two leagues operate at the Triple-A level, the International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL ...

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

. The Padres promoted Hedges to the major leagues on May 4, bringing him up as a back-up to

Derek Norris Derek Russell Norris (born February 14, 1989) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Tampa Bay Rays. Prior to playing professionally, Norris a ...

after designating

Wil Nieves Wilbert "Wil" Nieves (born September 25, 1977) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher and current minor league coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, Mil ...

for assignment. Hedges had hit .324 with 2 home runs in 79 at-bats for the Chihuahuas. On May 6, Hedges notched his first Major League hit, an RBI single in the third inning of a game against the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

. He recorded 137 plate appearances during the 2015 season, hitting for a .168 batting average. In the offseason, Hedges played for the

Leones del Escogido Leones del Escogido (English: ''Chosen One Lions'' or ''Lions of Chosen One'' or ''Picked Lions'') is a professional baseball team in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Established in , Leones are the third most successful team in the Dominican Wi ...

of the

Dominican Winter League Dominican may refer to: * Someone or something from or related to the Dominican Republic ( , stress on the "mi"), on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles, in the Caribbean ** People of the Dominican Republic ** Demographics of the Domi ...

. Hedges was invited to spring training in 2016, but began the season in El Paso. In April, he suffered a fractured

hamate bone The hamate bone (from Latin hamatus, "hooked"), or unciform bone (from Latin ''uncus'', "hook"), Latin os hamatum and occasionally abbreviated as just hamatum, is a bone in the human wrist readily distinguishable by its wedge shape and a hook-l ...

in his left hand which required surgery. He returned to the Triple-A club six weeks after the operation and then went on a run where he hit 14 home runs and posted a .395 batting average over a 30-game stretch. He finished the season with a .326/.353/.597 batting line and 21 home runs in his 82 games with El Paso, which was considered a breakout season for a player regarded as a defense-first catcher. Hedges joined the Padres for 8 games in late September after the Triple-A national championship game. Hedges moved into a role as the Padres regular catcher in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, catching 115 games and backed up by

Luis Torrens Luis Alfonso Torrens Sáez (born May 2, 1996) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher in the Chicago Cubs organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners. Career New York ...

and Héctor Sánchez. Hedges missed two weeks in late July with a mild concussion after taking a foul ball off his mask. On June 19, Hedges was behind the plate when

Anthony Rizzo Anthony Vincent Rizzo (born August 8, 1989) is an American professional baseball first baseman for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs. He is a three-time ...

collided with him on a controversial play and knocked him out of the game. He missed two more games but avoided the disabled list. Hedges finished the season with a .214/.262/.398 batting line with 18 home runs in 387 at-bats. Behind the plate, he had a 37% caught stealing rate. His fielding runs above average (26.7) led all catchers, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he ranked second in framing runs. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, Hedges again began the season as the Padres regular catcher, backed up by A. J. Ellis. He was placed on the disabled list on May 1 with right elbow tendinitis and had his initial rehab assignment cut short by lingering soreness. He returned to action with the Padres on June 24 and remained as the primary catcher for the rest of the season, splitting time in September with call-up

Francisco Mejía Francisco José Mejía (born October 27, 1995) is a Dominican professional baseball catcher for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. Career Mejía was ...

. Hedges had a strong July and August and finished the season hitting .231/.282/.429 with 14 home runs in 303 at-bats. Behind the plate he finished fifth best among all catchers in adjusted fielding runs (11.8) according to Baseball Prospectus, despite catching only 95 games on the season. Hedges entered the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

season as the Padres primary catcher, but his bat slumped early and he lost time to Mejía when Mejía returned from an injury in late June. Hedges started 49 of the Padres first 73 games, and then 44 games over the rest of the season. He had a batting line of .176/.252/.311 with 11 home runs in 312 at-bats for the year. Hedges' defense remained strong, as he threw out 33% of base stealers and was worth 28.2 fielding runs above average according to Baseball Prospectus. Hedges was also an elite pitch framer in 2019, ranking at the top of the MLB Statcast leaderboard for the year with 20 runs created with extra strike calls.

Cleveland Indians / Guardians

On August 31, 2020, the Padres traded Hedges, along with

Josh Naylor Joshua-Douglas James Naylor (born June 22, 1997) is a Canadian professional baseball first baseman and outfielder for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the San Diego Padres. Naylor was the 12th overa ...

Cal Quantrill Cal Paul Quantrill (born February 10, 1995) is a Canadian professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball for Stanford University. He was selected in the first round of the 201 ...

, and minor league players Gabriel Arias, Owen Miller, and Joey Cantillo, to the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

in exchange for

Mike Clevinger Michael Anthony Clevinger (born December 21, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. Clevinger ma ...

, Greg Allen, and Matt Waldron. Overall with

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, Hedges batted .083 with no home runs and 0 RBIs in 6 games. Hedges became a free agent following the 2022 season.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Hedges signed a one-year deal with the

on December 20, 2022.

Personal life

Hedges and his wife, Maggie, were married in 2019 and reside in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

during the offseason.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedges, Austin 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from San Juan Capistrano, California Baseball players from California Major League Baseball catchers San Diego Padres players Cleveland Indians players Cleveland Guardians players Arizona League Padres players Eugene Emeralds players Fort Wayne TinCaps players Lake Elsinore Storm players San Antonio Missions players Peoria Javelinas players El Paso Chihuahuas players Leones del Escogido players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic