After the Texas Rangers acquired Max Scherzer on the 2023 deadline, quite a few their gamers had been uncertain of 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 simply going straight at this man’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 accordance 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 capability 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 wished Hedges’ power. The boldness he instills in his teammates. And sure, the raucous, fun-loving surroundings he creates in a clubhouse, the way in which he did with Scherzer in 2023.
“What does Max need? Max needs to speak trash,” Hedges mentioned. “One of the best of one of the best, nobody picks on them. These guys are dying for banter, simply to be one of many boys.”
Hedges doesn’t keep in mind what he mentioned to Scherzer initially, joking, “I don’t keep in mind half the issues I say.” Scherzer believes mutual pals maybe tipped off Hedges on rile him. Irrespective of, Scherzer relished the verbal assault.
“I really like that he went for my throat instantly,” Scherzer mentioned.
“He instantly remodeled the dynamic of your entire group as an alternative of getting Max be on his personal separate island,” Lowe mentioned.
Hedges and his Rangers teammates have a good time profitable the 2023 American League pennant in seven video games over the Astros. (Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/Getty Photos)
With that, the Rangers had been on their approach. To a wild-card berth highlighted by Hedges’ smashing of an ostrich egg on the ultimate weekend of the common season, with yolk flying all over the place. To the group’s first World Collection title, with Hedges coming into the hitters’ assembly earlier than each postseason recreation in his jockstrap, marking the variety of wins wanted for a championship with eye black scrawled on his bare butt cheek.
“With out him that yr, I’m undecided we develop into the group we grew to become within the playoffs,” Rangers catching coordinator Bobby Wilson mentioned.
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 massive bettors in playing cards, Lowe mentioned.
At one level, Hedges misplaced a large quantity to Scherzer taking part in playing cards. Scherzer proceeded to order a number of bottles of pricy wine at a group dinner and compelled Hedges to choose up the tab.
“Look, that is popping out of your (playoff) share,” Scherzer recalled telling the backup catcher. “Everybody else right here helps you receives a commission. 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 bought to understand how a lot a participant who shouldn’t be a star participant can influence a ballclub,” Bochy mentioned.
Nobody in uniform is immune from Hedges’ razzing, not even his coaches and supervisor.
“Option 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 identified extra for his offense than protection.
“Swing it, Albie!” Hedges will shout if a hitter takes a nasty 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 may take goal on the 10-year veteran, hollering, “Swing it, Hedgie!” stating Hedges’ personal offensive deficiencies.
“That’s good chirp,” Hedges mentioned.
Hedges’ chatter eases stress, retains gamers within the second. The environment he creates, Albernaz mentioned, resembles a university dugout.
“He doesn’t shut up,” Guardians first-base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. mentioned, laughing earlier than including, “He’s one other coach on the sphere.”
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, choosing up recommendations on opponents, asking questions of Vogt and his workers, advising and inspiring teammates.
Guardians pitcher Ben Full of life remembers rising outwardly annoyed at instances final season, and Hedges telling him, “Dude, no, you’re higher whenever you’re calm. Maintain it inside.” Shane Bieber, the Guardians’ 2020 Cy Younger Award winner, mentioned, “I’ve by no means met anyone who’s so good at offering confidence for others.”
Austin Hedges celebrates the Guardians’ playoff-clinching win over Minnesota with supervisor Stephen Vogt final September. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Photos)
After Main League Baseball launched the wi-fi PitchCom communication system in 2022, Hedges developed a novel technique to hearth up his pitchers. Along with recording customary voice instructions like, “Fastball away,” Hedges made one that claims, “F— yeah.”
“You make an excellent pitch, you get a little bit, ‘F— yeah.’ After which I name the following pitch,” Hedges mentioned.
Day-after-day, it doesn’t matter what Hedges is likely to be experiencing personally or professionally, teammates and workers members say he is identical.
“That’s a aware alternative,” Vogt mentioned. “You get up. You need to make the choice, ‘I’m going to be an excellent teammate. I’m going to carry power.’”
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 mentioned with out Hedges final season, the Rangers’ dugout was a distinct, much less rambunctious place.
“He’s espresso 24-7, it appears like,” Eovaldi mentioned. “I don’t know the way he sleeps.”
Hedges began solely 5 video games for the Rangers within the ultimate 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 unfastened and hit within the batting cage within the third or fourth inning in preparation for a potential late entrance. However in September, the Rangers requested him to work on his hitting earlier than video games. Bochy wished Hedges’ presence within the dugout, from the primary pitch to the final.
Hedges liked listening to he was making a distinction.
“You suppose this issues?” he thought to himself. “You haven’t seen something but.”
Watching Hedges’ antics with the Rangers, outfielder Travis Jankowski barely might 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’s now,” Jankowski mentioned.
Hedges, who grew up in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., about an hour north of San Diego, was the Padres’ second-round draft choose in 2011. Scouts in Southern California instructed Baseball America he was one of the best defensive backstop to come back out of the realm in at the least 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 accountability of studying catch, establishing himself offensively and serving as a bellwether of a rebuilding membership.
“He was thrust right into a management place within the main leagues earlier than anybody else within the recreation actually will get thrust into that,” former Padres supervisor Andy Inexperienced mentioned.
“He put a lot stress on himself, it in all probability wasn’t wholesome for him,” Jankowski mentioned.
Hedges doesn’t dispute these assessments.
“At a sure level,” he mentioned, “I don’t know if I even wished to play baseball anymore.”
Solely after the Padres despatched him to Cleveland, together with him in a nine-player commerce through the shortened 2020 season, did Hedges begin to see the sport, and himself, otherwise.
“My profession modified after I bought traded to Cleveland,” Hedges mentioned. “I didn’t actually work out look within the mirror and acknowledge what was truly occurring till I bought out of San Diego.”
Hedges seen the commerce as a chance to start out over. Nobody with Cleveland knew him. Adopting a brand new, extra outgoing persona, he “got here in scorching” making an attempt to make an enormous first impression along with his new teammates. The gamers and workers responded favorably. He all the time had been a caring teammate, taking explicit delight in his relationships with pitchers. However now, he would maintain himself to a good increased customary.
Cleveland initially acquired him to be a backup. However in Might 2021, the group’s starter, Roberto Pérez, endured two lengthy stints on the injured checklist, growing 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, in search of further catching depth with their starter, Jonah Heim, on the IL, acquired Hedges on the deadline in ’23 for worldwide bonus pool house.
“Once I was in San Diego, nothing was ever adequate for me. There was no such factor as having an excellent day,” Hedges mentioned.
Now, he by no means has a nasty day. As sparingly as he performs, Hedges all the time tries to search out one thing to carry worth to his group.
“And possibly that one thing,” he mentioned, “is ensuring that one dude every single day appears like they’re 10 ft tall.”
Shortly after Hedges joined the Rangers, the group’s offensive coordinator, Donnie Ecker, requested for his help in pregame hitters’ conferences.
Hedges, aware of his woeful offensive numbers, thought the request odd — he wished the Rangers to assist him along with his personal hitting. However Ecker, recognizing the way in which Hedges introduced individuals 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 wished to ship that day. Ecker put no limits on Hedges’ creativity. Nonetheless Hedges wished to inform the day’s story — by video, graphics or varied unprintable acts — was fantastic with him.
At one level in September, Hedges observed individuals on social media posting a pretend speech by Dan Campbell, during which the Detroit Lions coach mentioned he ate ostrich eggs for breakfast, drawing energy from “dino (dinosaur) protein.” Hedges tailored the speech to baseball, and the gamers liked it. Ecker, in search of to increase the bit, then bought an ostrich egg in New Mexico for about $350 and offered 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.”
“No one believed it was actual,” former Rangers catcher Mitch Garver mentioned. “However Hedges handled it prefer it was all the things. He would carry it on the bus. He saved it within the dugout subsequent to all of the hitters.”
However when the Rangers misplaced two video games in Seattle to start out their ultimate sequence of 2023 whereas needing just one win to clinch at the least a wild card, Ecker requested Hedges, “How do you are feeling about sacrificing Oscar for the higher trigger?”
Hedges sprung into motion, enlisting assistants to affix him in dressing in black robes, bringing candles to the hitters’ assembly, taking part in music from “The Darkish Knight Rises.” He capped the ceremony by destroying the egg with a mallet, creating a large mess.
“I’ve a video of it on my telephone,” Hedges mentioned. “And also you hear everyone: ‘Oh, it was actual.’”
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 one factor I must know, Hedgie, what’s the quantity in your ass proper now?”
Soak all of it in, Rangers! 🍾🍾🍾 pic.twitter.com/mGbTp3LN6Y
— FOX Sports activities: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 11, 2023
Hardly anybody outdoors of the group knew what Bochy was speaking about. Bochy lamented, “That wasn’t my smartest transfer. I ought to have saved that throughout the membership.” 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 style, he’d stroll in actual gradual, say, ‘Boys, we bought a few video games to win. Anyone know precisely what number of video games?’” Lowe recalled. “Then someone would say the quantity, he’d flip round and bend over and the quantity was proper there.”
Hedges recognized Wilson, the Rangers’ catching coordinator, as the one that utilized the attention black most steadily. (“Not one thing I’m happy with,” Wilson mentioned.) And the hitters weren’t the one ones who bore witness to Hedges’ posterior.
“Sadly, I did see it loads,” Scherzer mentioned.
With the Guardians final season, Hedges was considerably extra restrained — “The youthful teams are rather less foolish, extra residing in actuality,” he mentioned. Not that Hedges lived a joyless, absolutely clothed existence. “Any image we have now of him shirtless (throughout playoff celebrations), that’s prime Hedges,” pitcher Triston McKenzie mentioned.
The way in which Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan seems to be at it, “He’s all the time the loudest within the room, and he’s all the time saying actually dumb issues within the room. So, when he’s the loudest and dumbest, everybody else might be just a bit much less loud and rather less dumb. After which your common character comes out.”
After the 2023 season, the Seattle Mariners‘ Cal Raleigh decided his catching was good, however not adequate. Nicely conscious of Hedges’ defensive fame, he reached out to his fellow catcher, who occurred to reside 10 minutes away in Phoenix.
“Some guys don’t need to reveal their secrets and techniques,” Raleigh mentioned. “However he was like, ‘No dude, I’m an open e-book.’”
Hedges invited Raleigh to his residence. The 2 spoke for about three hours, then started working a number of days every 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 1 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 might fairly than depend on comfortable 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 season, Raleigh was awarded the Platinum Glove as one of the best defender within the American League.
“I credit score him for lots of my success,” Raleigh mentioned of Hedges. “There have been loads of issues I did final yr that I simply took proper out of his playbook and put into my recreation.”
So, whereas Hedges is an incessant talker, he’s additionally a catching whisperer. As a lot as his present and former teammates get pleasure from recounting his shenanigans, they need one factor clear: The inspiration of Hedges’ worth is his protection behind the plate.
“It will get misplaced how good of a catcher he’s,” Bieber mentioned. “He’s one of the best catcher I’ve thrown to.”
“His preparation is insane,” Alomar mentioned. “Each single day, he prepares himself prefer it’s a World Collection recreation.”
Hedges prepares to take some swings earlier than Recreation 5 of the 2024 ALCS in Cleveland. (Lauren Leigh Bacho/MLB Images through Getty Photos)
Hedges ranks fifth in defensive runs saved for a catcher since Sports activities Data 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 making an attempt 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 way in which 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 essential 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 careworn making an attempt to memorize scouting stories, Hedges tells Naylor, “All the data is there within the second should you concentrate.” If a hitter, for instance, is late on a fastball, don’t essentially observe up with a breaking ball even when the report suggests such a pitch in a specific depend. Concentrate. Watch the sport.
“There’s actually no scarcity of issues he has helped me with,” Naylor mentioned. “Particularly on the receiving aspect, he’s been a tremendous instance of how constant arduous work within the bullpen, off the machines, making the appropriate strikes can go a good distance.”
His offensive numbers are an eyesore, among the many worst within the recreation’s historical past. The Guardians, although, aren’t giving up on Hedges as a hitter.
“The hitting’s in there,” Albernaz mentioned. “It’s in there.”
Hedges agrees. Catching comes naturally to him. Hitting doesn’t. However he hit nicely 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 power in his 30s.
“Actually, one of many issues that will get me away from bed within the morning is figuring out that I’ve bought to get higher at this factor,” Hedges mentioned. “And if I do, it’s going to be the good factor ever.”
He works furiously on his hitting, envisioning a day during 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 hold 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, individuals in baseball already discuss in regards to the potential for Hedges when his taking part in profession is over. Raleigh predicted, “He’ll be an awesome supervisor sooner or later.” Inexperienced, Hedges’ former supervisor with the Padres, mentioned, “I’d like to see him stick within the recreation. The sport can be higher for it.“
Hedges mentioned he may fairly be a bench coach than a supervisor, reasoning that as a coach, he might work extra carefully with gamers. Both approach, he’s hardly able to retire.
“I’ve thought loads in regards to the finish of my profession,” he mentioned. “I need to keep within the recreation. 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 really feel like I’m a translator for the coaches and for Vogt. Vogter can’t come into the clubhouse and ship a message every single day. Nobody needs to listen to speeches. But when he has one thing that must be mentioned, I can say it in his phrases. Whenever you hear it from a participant that’s truly on the market, it goes loads additional.”
Oh, and Hedges even can provide 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 celebrity’s $68 million deferred.
“There’s a motive I’m making twice as a lot as Shohei,” Hedges cracked.
Batting common means solely a lot, in any case.
(Prime picture of Austin Hedges and Guardians pitcher Erik Sabrowski: Lauren Leigh Bacho / MLB Images through Getty Photos)