Austin Hedges is a catcher first, but it's probably fair to say he's a Pirate now to be a teacher second.
On Tuesday, the Pirates finalized a one-year, $5 million deal with the free agent backstop, giving them their presumed opening day starter and ideally a leader for a young pitching staff. Regarded as one of the best defensive catchers in the game, Hedges offers an edge with the glove that can sometimes be the difference for a young club.
It certainly was last year with the Guardians, where he was their primary catcher and helped guide that staff to an unexpected division title.
"It’s not a situation that is foreign to me," Hedges said about joining the Pirates during his introduction at PNC Park. "I’ve spent a lot of time with young teams, both as a young player and a veteran. Coming from Cleveland last year with a young team that had dozens of guys making their debuts, especially on the pitching staff, definitely gave me a little bit of a head start into what I think we’re trying to do here in Pittsburgh. I think what Cleveland was able to do last year with a young staff and still be able to get to the playoffs, I see no reason why Pittsburgh can’t be that club this year."
It would be quite the jump for the Pirates to go from triple-digit losses in back-to-back seasons to some form of contention, but the 2023 season does offer more reasons for optimism than those previous clubs, mostly due to the number of young players and prospects the club expects to bring up over the course of the season. That includes pitchers like Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz and Mike Burrows, who could form a young rotation with upside alongside players already in the majors, like Mitch Keller and Roansy Contreras.
Being in the American League the past couple years, Hedges isn't too familiar with the Pirates' staff yet. He and the pitching team are going to have a Zoom call after the holidays to dive deeper on the staff, but for now, he is trying to learn about his new staff's stuff.
"One of my biggest philosophies in game-calling is sticking with my pitchers’ strengths," Hedges said. "I gotta know not only his stuff but who he is as a person. Spring training is going to be very important for me and trying to create a personal relationship with everybody as well as a personal relationship."
Talked to new Pirates catcher Austin Hedges today. Here is what he had to say about his catching philosophy pic.twitter.com/tq2nnmUbhY
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) December 20, 2022
Hedges isn't just here to help the pitching staff or be a clubhouse leader, though. And while he's seemingly penciled in to be the opening day starter right now, it is very possible that he loses the starting job to one of the two catching prospects in the system, Henry Davis and Endy Rodriguez, at some point in 2023.
Rodriguez and Davis, ranked first and third in Baseball America's most recent list of the Pirates' top prospects, will start the year in the minors, according to Derek Shelton at the Winter Meetings in San Diego earlier this month. Midseason promotions are very much in the cards for them. If and when it happens, it will surely eat into Hedges' playing time.
He's not dreading that scenario. He's here to teach, remember? And if they're looking for a mentor, they can't do much better than the catcher who leads his position in defensive runs saved since his major-league debut in 2015 (75).
"Catching is my passion, so teaching it is one of my favorite things," Hedges said. "Young guys who are trying to make it in the big leagues, that’s something that I look forward to doing for the rest of my life — helping out those young guys and teaching them the things that I learned the hard way through failure and experience... If I can kind of help them be who they are and stay who they are from the get go, I’m really looking forward to that being part of my job."
"I’ve always taken pride in being a leader," Hedges followed up shortly after. "With a leader, you have to do a little bit of teaching. And you have to be vulnerable in the things that you’ve sucked at. The only way to be a good leader is hold yourself accountable to what you know you have to learn at. The only way to really learn is to fail. I’ve failed a lot in the big leagues. I’ve hit under .200 multiple years, and that’s not the easiest thing to go through. But if I can show up and be the same guy every day, then it has a positive reaction on my teammates to let them know that it’s OK. You can get through it."
There's one part of that quote in particular that shouldn't be glossed over, and it's why Hedges was a free agent. He has struggled at the dish the past four years, posting an OPS+ of 50 or lower each of the last four seasons. That means he has produced less than half of the offensive output of an average player each season since 2019.
This past year, he slashed .163/.241/.248 with seven home runs and 30 RBIs over 338 trips to the plate. A career .189 hitter with a career .578 OPS, Hedges isn't going to jumpstart this Pirate offense.
He has jumped around different facilities, including the infamous Driveline in Arizona, to do biomechanical research to try to improve his offensive output. He's been trying to gather as much information as possible so he can try to compress it and apply it to a whole season.
Because while Hedges has struggled at the plate in recent years, he does have an 18 and 14 home run season on his resume and he was a roughly league average hitter at one point. Getting any offensive production from catcher would be a huge boost for the Pirates, who had a league-worst .531 OPS from their catchers last year. Despite his track record, Hedges feels he can help.
"I’ve done it before," Hedges said. "Hitting has not been as easy as catching has been for me. On the hitting side, I’ve had a couple years of some things happened physically where I haven’t been as close to 100% as I would like to be. But my body is in a great spot right now. I feel healthy. I like where my swing’s at. I always remember that I’ve done it before. I’ve hit 18 homers. I’ve hit 14 homers. I’ve had good numbers in the minor leagues as well. I know it’s in there. I’ve done it before. With a fresh start here, I feel like there’s no reason why I can’t contribute on both sides of the ball."
If the Pirates are going to take a step forward, like Hedges says he believes they can, he's going to need to contribute. He saw his Guardians take that leap forward last year. Now he's taking the challenge head on again.
"I know what to do. But more importantly, I know what not to do," Hedges said. "A lot of things worked really well for Cleveland last year, but there were a lot of adjustments that, by the end of the year after reflective, I know what could have made it even better. So it honestly feels like a whole new opportunity to go about it with already having some of the growing pains. Hopefully through some of my experiences and my failures, we can kind of skip, or not fail as quickly or as early as we would like."
