After the Texas Rangers acquired Max Scherzer on the 2023 deadline, a variety of their gamers had been not sure of how you can act, and nearly distanced themselves out of respect for the long run Corridor of Famer.
Catcher Austin Hedges, who joined the Rangers two days later in a separate commerce, took the other method.
“He was like, I’m just going straight at this guy’s chin,” former Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe recalled.
Hedges, 32, couldn’t be farther from Scherzer in profession accomplishments. His .186 lifetime batting common is the second lowest in AL-NL historical past amongst gamers with 2,000 at-bats, in keeping with STATS Carry out, forward of solely Invoice Bergen, who batted .170 from 1901-1911.
However groups proceed to worth Hedges for 2 causes: his elite defensive expertise and his uncommon means to attach a clubhouse.
The Cleveland Guardians, after reaching the American League Championship Collection, made Hedges one of many first free-agent signings of the offseason, bringing him again Nov. 6 on a one-year, $4 million contract. By no means thoughts that Hedges’ profession OPS is .559, and .446 the previous three seasons.
The Guardians needed Hedges’ power. The boldness he instills in his teammates. And sure, the raucous, fun-loving surroundings he creates in a clubhouse, the best way he did with Scherzer in 2023.
“What does Max want? Max wants to talk trash,” Hedges stated. “The best of the best, no one picks on them. These guys are dying for banter, just to be one of the boys.”
Hedges doesn’t bear in mind what he stated to Scherzer initially, joking, “I don’t remember half the things I say.” Scherzer believes mutual mates maybe tipped off Hedges on how you can rile him. Irrespective of, Scherzer relished the verbal assault.
“I love that he went for my throat immediately,” Scherzer stated.
“He immediately transformed the dynamic of the entire team instead of having Max be on his own separate island,” Lowe stated.
Hedges and his Rangers teammates have fun profitable the 2023 American League pennant in seven video games over the Astros. (Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/Getty Photographs)
With that, the Rangers had been on their manner. To a wild-card berth highlighted by Hedges’ smashing of an ostrich egg on the ultimate weekend of the common season, with yolk flying in all places. To the group’s first World Collection title, with Hedges coming into the hitters’ assembly earlier than each postseason sport in his jockstrap, marking the variety of wins wanted for a championship with eye black scrawled on his bare butt cheek.
“Without him that year, I’m not sure we become the team we became in the playoffs,” Rangers catching coordinator Bobby Wilson stated.
The banter between Hedges and Scherzer lightened a serious-minded Rangers’ clubhouse. The 2 sat on the head of the desk throughout group dinners, had been the ringleaders of fantasy soccer, the large bettors in playing cards, Lowe stated.
At one level, Hedges misplaced a large quantity to Scherzer taking part in playing cards. Scherzer proceeded to order a number of bottles of costly wine at a group dinner and compelled Hedges to select up the tab.
“Look, this is coming out of your (playoff) share,” Scherzer recalled telling the backup catcher. “Everyone else here is helping you get paid. So these are friendship dues.”
Hedges paid his debt, after which some. In a sport that quantifies just about each side of a participant’s efficiency, his contributions to the Rangers had been immeasurable, and left an influence on supervisor Bruce Bochy.
“I got to appreciate how much a player who is not a star player can impact a ballclub,” Bochy stated.
Nobody in uniform is immune from Hedges’ razzing, not even his coaches and supervisor.
“Way to catch it, Vogter!” Hedges will yell from the Guardians’ dugout if a catcher mishandles a pitch, poking enjoyable at his supervisor, Stephen Vogt, a former catcher recognized extra for his offense than protection.
“Swing it, Albie!” Hedges will shout if a hitter takes a foul swing, singling out Guardians affiliate supervisor Craig Albernaz, one other former catcher who was a profession .199 hitter within the minors.
Hedges dishes it out, however takes it, too. If a hitter breaks his bat, somebody within the dugout would possibly take intention on the 10-year veteran, hollering, “Swing it, Hedgie!” stating Hedges’ personal offensive deficiencies.
“That’s good chirp,” Hedges stated.
Hedges’ chatter eases rigidity, retains gamers within the second. The ambiance he creates, Albernaz stated, resembles a school dugout.
“He doesn’t shut up,” Guardians first-base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. stated, laughing earlier than including, “He’s another coach on the field.”
For all his entertaining repartee, Hedges is keenly conscious of when to lock in. On days he isn’t taking part in, he watches the sport intensely, selecting up recommendations on opponents, asking questions of Vogt and his workers, advising and inspiring teammates.
Guardians pitcher Ben Vigorous recollects rising outwardly annoyed at instances final season, and Hedges telling him, “Dude, no, you’re better when you’re calm. Keep it inside.” Shane Bieber, the Guardians’ 2020 Cy Younger Award winner, stated, “I’ve never met anybody who is so good at providing confidence for others.”
Austin Hedges celebrates the Guardians’ playoff-clinching win over Minnesota with supervisor Stephen Vogt final September. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Photographs)
After Main League Baseball launched the wi-fi PitchCom communication system in 2022, Hedges developed a novel strategy to fireplace up his pitchers. Along with recording commonplace voice instructions like, “Fastball away,” Hedges made one that claims, “F— yeah.”
“You make a good pitch, you get a little, ‘F— yeah.’ And then I call the next pitch,” Hedges stated.
Every single day, it doesn’t matter what Hedges could be experiencing personally or professionally, teammates and workers members say he is similar.
“That’s a conscious choice,” Vogt stated. “You wake up. You have to make the decision, ‘I’m going to be a good teammate. I’m going to bring energy.’”
Hedges does simply that, relentlessly. The Guardians see it as no coincidence they reached the postseason with Hedges in 2020, 2022 and ’24, however missed it with out him in ’23. Bochy and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi stated with out Hedges final season, the Rangers’ dugout was a unique, much less rambunctious place.
“He’s coffee 24-7, it feels like,” Eovaldi stated. “I don’t know how he sleeps.”
Hedges began solely 5 video games for the Rangers within the remaining two months of the 2023 common season, and performed solely three innings within the postseason. After becoming a member of the group, he would begin to get free and hit within the batting cage within the third or fourth inning in preparation for a attainable late entrance. However in September, the Rangers requested him to work on his hitting earlier than video games. Bochy needed Hedges’ presence within the dugout, from the primary pitch to the final.
Hedges liked listening to he was making a distinction.
“You think this matters?” he thought to himself. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Watching Hedges’ antics with the Rangers, outfielder Travis Jankowski barely may imagine it was the identical uptight man who additionally was his teammate with the San Diego Padres from 2015 to ’19.
“He wasn’t the Hedgie he is now,” Jankowski stated.
Hedges, who grew up in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., about an hour north of San Diego, was the Padres’ second-round draft decide in 2011. Scouts in Southern California informed Baseball America he was the most effective defensive backstop to return out of the world in no less than a decade. By 2014, the publication rated him the Padres’ No. 1 prospect.
Hedges envisioned himself turning into a perennial All-Star for his hometown group. However in these early years, he was overwhelmed by the duty of studying how you can catch, establishing himself offensively and serving as a bellwether of a rebuilding membership.
“He was thrust into a leadership position in the major leagues before anyone else in the game really gets thrust into that,” former Padres supervisor Andy Inexperienced stated.
“He put so much stress on himself, it probably wasn’t healthy for him,” Jankowski stated.
Hedges doesn’t dispute these assessments.
“At a certain point,” he stated, “I don’t know if I even wanted to play baseball anymore.”
Solely after the Padres despatched him to Cleveland, together with him in a nine-player commerce in the course of the shortened 2020 season, did Hedges begin to see the sport, and himself, in a different way.
“My career changed when I got traded to Cleveland,” Hedges stated. “I didn’t really figure out how to look in the mirror and acknowledge what was actually happening until I got out of San Diego.”
Hedges seen the commerce as a chance to begin over. Nobody with Cleveland knew him. Adopting a brand new, extra outgoing persona, he “came in hot” attempting to make a giant first impression together with his new teammates. The gamers and workers responded favorably. He all the time had been a caring teammate, taking explicit pleasure in his relationships with pitchers. However now, he would maintain himself to an excellent greater commonplace.
Cleveland initially acquired him to be a backup. However in Could 2021, the group’s starter, Roberto Pérez, endured two lengthy stints on the injured listing, rising Hedges’ taking part in time. He remained the first catcher in ’22, then signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first crack at free company. The Rangers, looking for extra catching depth with their starter, Jonah Heim, on the IL, acquired Hedges on the deadline in ’23 for worldwide bonus pool area.
“When I was in San Diego, nothing was ever good enough for me. There was no such thing as having a good day,” Hedges stated.
Now, he by no means has a foul day. As sparingly as he performs, Hedges all the time tries to search out one thing to carry worth to his group.
“And maybe that something,” he stated, “is making sure that one dude every day feels like they’re 10 feet tall.”
Shortly after Hedges joined the Rangers, the group’s offensive coordinator, Donnie Ecker, requested for his help in pregame hitters’ conferences.
Hedges, conscious of his woeful offensive numbers, thought the request odd — he needed the Rangers to assist him together with his personal hitting. However Ecker, recognizing the best way Hedges introduced folks collectively in a humorous style, noticed a gap to supply the group a brand new voice.
Three hours earlier than the hitters’ conferences, Ecker and Hedges would meet on their very own, reviewing the message Ecker needed to ship that day. Ecker put no limits on Hedges’ creativity. Nonetheless Hedges needed to inform the day’s story — via video, graphics or numerous unprintable acts — was high-quality with him.
At one level in September, Hedges observed folks on social media posting a faux speech by Dan Campbell, by which the Detroit Lions coach stated he ate ostrich eggs for breakfast, drawing power from “dino (dinosaur) protein.” Hedges tailored the speech to baseball, and the gamers liked it. Ecker, looking for to increase the bit, then bought an ostrich egg in New Mexico for about $350 and introduced it to Hedges.
Ostrich eggs are the most important of all eggs, about six inches lengthy and weighing about three kilos. Hedges named the would-be ostrich, “Oscar.”
“Nobody believed it was real,” former Rangers catcher Mitch Garver stated. “But Hedges treated it like it was everything. He would carry it on the bus. He kept it in the dugout next to all the hitters.”
However when the Rangers misplaced two video games in Seattle to begin their remaining collection of 2023 whereas needing just one win to clinch no less than a wild card, Ecker requested Hedges, “How do you feel about sacrificing Oscar for the greater cause?”
Hedges sprung into motion, enlisting assistants to hitch him in dressing in black robes, bringing candles to the hitters’ assembly, taking part in music from “The Dark Knight Rises.” He capped the ceremony by destroying the egg with a mallet, creating an enormous mess.
“I have a video of it on my phone,” Hedges stated. “And you hear everybody: ‘Oh, it was real.’”
The Rangers clinched the wild card that day. And Hedges was simply getting began.
After the group’s Division Collection sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, Bochy sparked the postgame clubhouse celebration, with TV cameras rolling, by shouting, “The only thing I need to know, Hedgie, what’s the number on your ass right now?”
Soak all of it in, Rangers! 🍾🍾🍾 pic.twitter.com/mGbTp3LN6Y
Hardly anybody exterior of the group knew what Bochy was speaking about. Bochy lamented, “That wasn’t my smartest move. I should have kept that within the club.” Inadvertently, he revealed The Legend of the Butt Cheek, the countdown to 13 postseason wins happening in hitters’ conferences on Hedges’ naked behind.
“In typical Hedges fashion, he’d walk in real slow, say, ‘Boys, we got a couple of games to win. Anybody know exactly how many games?’” Lowe recalled. “Then somebody would say the number, he’d turn around and bend over and the number was right there.”
Hedges recognized Wilson, the Rangers’ catching coordinator, as the one that utilized the attention black most regularly. (“Not something I’m proud of,” Wilson stated.) And the hitters weren’t the one ones who bore witness to Hedges’ posterior.
“Unfortunately, I did see it a lot,” Scherzer stated.
With the Guardians final season, Hedges was considerably extra restrained — “The younger groups are a little less silly, more living in reality,” he stated. Not that Hedges lived a joyless, absolutely clothed existence. “Any picture we have of him shirtless (during playoff celebrations), that’s prime Hedges,” pitcher Triston McKenzie stated.
The way in which Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan appears at it, “He’s always the loudest in the room, and he’s always saying really dumb things in the room. So, when he’s the loudest and dumbest, everyone else can be just a little less loud and a little less dumb. And then your regular personality comes out.”
After the 2023 season, the Seattle Mariners‘ Cal Raleigh determined his catching was good, but not good enough. Well aware of Hedges’ defensive fame, he reached out to his fellow catcher, who occurred to dwell 10 minutes away in Phoenix.
“Some guys don’t want to reveal their secrets,” Raleigh stated. “But he was like, ‘No dude, I’m an open book.’”
Hedges invited Raleigh to his house. They spoke for about three hours, then started working a couple of days per week on all the things catching entails — receiving, blocking, framing. Raleigh, 6-foot-3 and 235 kilos, adjusted his stance, kicking out extra as he dropped to at least one knee to get even decrease for framing. He additionally adjusted his receiving, studying — as Hedges did in Pittsburgh — to seize a pitch as quick and arduous as he may quite than depend on gentle palms. Once more, the purpose was higher framing.
Raleigh struggled with the brand new receiving approach in spring coaching; Hedges recalled him calling in a panic over the balls he was lacking. However on the finish of the season, Raleigh was awarded the Platinum Glove as the most effective defender within the American League.
“I credit him for a lot of my success,” Raleigh stated of Hedges. “There were a lot of things I did last year that I just took right out of his playbook and put into my game.”
So, whereas Hedges is an incessant talker, he’s additionally a catching whisperer. As a lot as his present and former teammates take pleasure in recounting his shenanigans, they need one factor clear: The inspiration of Hedges’ worth is his protection behind the plate.
“It gets lost how good of a catcher he is,” Bieber stated. “He’s the best catcher I’ve thrown to.”
“His preparation is insane,” Alomar stated. “Every single day, he prepares himself like it’s a World Series game.”
Hedges prepares to take some swings earlier than Sport 5 of the 2024 ALCS in Cleveland. (Lauren Leigh Bacho / MLB Images by way of Getty Photographs)
Hedges ranks fifth in defensive runs saved for a catcher since Sports activities Information Options started monitoring the metric in 2003, regardless of being fiftieth in innings caught. He completed tenth in that metric final season and didn’t even catch 400 innings. But, he’s continually attempting to refine his expertise.
When Hedges joined the Rangers, he requested Wilson to assist train him how Heim threw out of the one-knee stance. Hedges, in flip, modified the best way Garver and Heim pored over scouting stories, utilizing warmth maps to level out higher methods to assault hitters.
With the Guardians, Hedges is a very vital useful resource for catcher Bo Naylor, who’s coming into his second season, at 25. Recalling his days with the Padres, when he grew overly confused attempting to memorize scouting stories, Hedges tells Naylor, “All the information is there in the moment if you pay attention.” If a hitter, for instance, is late on a fastball, don’t essentially comply with up with a breaking ball even when the report suggests such a pitch in a selected rely. Concentrate. Watch the sport.
“There’s really no shortage of things he has helped me with,” Naylor stated. “Especially on the receiving side, he’s been an amazing example of how consistent hard work in the bullpen, off the machines, making the right moves can go a long way.”
His offensive numbers are an eyesore, among the many worst within the sport’s historical past. The Guardians, although, aren’t giving up on Hedges as a hitter.
“The hitting’s in there,” Albernaz stated. “It’s in there.”
Hedges agrees. Catching comes naturally to him. Hitting doesn’t. However he hit properly within the minors, produced a career-high 18 homers for the Padres in 2017 and was near a league-average hitter in ’18. His purpose is to be one other Justin Turner, rising as an offensive drive in his 30s.
“Honestly, one of the things that gets me out of bed in the morning is knowing that I’ve got to get better at this thing,” Hedges stated. “And if I do, it’s going to be the coolest thing ever.”
He works furiously on his hitting, envisioning a day by which he serves for instance for youthful gamers of how issues can flip. It’s not too late for that to occur. His protection alone will preserve him in demand. And for examples of catchers who loved extended careers, he want look solely to his personal clubhouse. Vogt performed till he was 37, Alomar till he was 41.
But, folks in baseball already discuss concerning the potential for Hedges when his taking part in profession is over. Raleigh predicted, “He’ll be a great manager one day.” Inexperienced, Hedges’ former supervisor with the Padres, stated, “I’d love to see him stick in the game. The game would be better for it.”
Hedges stated he would possibly quite be a bench coach than a supervisor, reasoning that as a coach, he may work extra carefully with gamers. Both manner, he’s hardly able to retire.
“I’ve thought plenty about the end of my career,” he stated. “I need to keep within the sport. I do know that. However I’ve realized I need to play so long as I can. I really feel like my worth is definitely as a participant.
“I feel like I’m a translator for the coaches and for Vogt. Vogter can’t come into the clubhouse and deliver a message every day. No one wants to hear speeches. But if he has something that needs to be said, I can say it in his words. When you hear it from a player that is actually out there, it goes a lot further.”
Oh, and Hedges even can supply a pitching perspective, primarily based on his 4 appearances for the Rangers in 2023 and one other for the Guardians in ’24. His profession ERA, over 5 2/3 innings, is a glowing 3.18.
The Rangers joked he was a three-way participant. And Ecker recalled Hedges evaluating his $4 million wage final season to Shohei Ohtani’s $2 million annual take, excluding the two-way famous person’s $68 million deferred.
“There’s a reason I’m making twice as much as Shohei,” Hedges cracked.
Batting common means solely a lot, in spite of everything.
(Prime picture of Austin Hedges and Guardians pitcher Erik Sabrowski: Lauren Leigh Bacho / MLB Images by way of Getty Photographs)
