‘Obsessed with it’
Handling pitching staff a huge point of pride for catcher Hedges
BRADENTON, Fla. — The reasoning was simple. Austin Hedges wanted to play.
While growing up in southern California, Hedges played travel baseball for the first time at age 13. He was a year younger than many of his teammates but welcomed the challenge of earning playing time while competing with bigger, stronger players.
Hedges can even remember one of the team’s coaches offering specific instructions for how to get into the lineup.
“I remember him saying, ‘The only way you’re gonna play is if the pitchers want to throw to you,’ ” Hedges said. “Subconsciously, I think I started realizing that they just need to know that I care. A couple months later, I had a couple dudes telling the coach, ‘I want to throw to Hedges.’
“I was like, ‘Oh, that works.’ ”
Seventeen years and a bunch of levels later, the recipe remains the same for Hedges, his effectiveness rooted in pitchers really wanting to throw to him. Only this time, Hedges knows there’s more at stake than playing time.
The Pirates are counting on his defensive ability and how well he’s reputed to handle a pitching staff to young positively staff. So influence far in spring a training, the results have been hard to miss.
“If we want to make the postseason, we have to be on our game,” Colin Holderman said. “He’s gonna demand that from us, and I’m super excited to throw to him all year.”
“He’s awesome to throw to,” JT Brubaker said. “My bullpen got better as it went on because of the talking that occurred with him.”
The process of learning a pitching staff isn’t easy, but it’s one Hedges loves. Doing this for basically a third time after stints in San Diego and Cleveland, Hedges jokes that he doesn’t remember much in life — except the ins and outs of pitchers’ preferences.
Where they want him to set up.
A sequence they prefer around their changeup. The target they need for a low-and-heater. Where they are confidence-wise with breaking stuff. Mental notes logged day after day.
It’s the same stuff he sought to learn as a teenager playing for the Blue Waves, doing whatever pitchers needed to work his way into the lineup.
“When it comes to catching and pitching, I’m so obsessed with it; I can’t forget it,” Hedges said. “I’ll think about Holderman’s bullpen for the next day until I catch another bullpen.
“Especially learning so many guys like I am right now, I have to obsess over it so I can learn and remember it so we can win. Because if I don’t, well, you can quantify pitcher-catcher relationships with wins and losses.”
Which is why, Hedges explained, he tries like hell to separate his catching from hitting.
Behind the plate, nobody has been worth more defensive runs saved (FanGraphs) since Hedges made his MLB debut in 2015.
Yet he also hasn’t hit much, including a .163 average this past season.
But the way Hedges sees it, his role isn’t as much about his own production as it is being there for his pitchers, knowing them in and out and ensuring their needs are met at all times.
“I can suck behind the plate or suck hitting,” Hedges said. “But it’s up to me to be good at my relationship with [pitchers].
“It’s the thing I prioritize the most over anything because even if I suck, I know I can make someone else better.”
Hedges talks like that a lot, describing how he might suck, but takes pride in positively affecting the team.
It’s funny and endearing and a quality he also wants to impress upon Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis, youngsters he’s been mentoring and offering tips on the finer points of catching.
Those two are the future at the position, and Hedges said he’s been blown away by how much they know. That has allowed him to get more specific in discussions and really drill deeper into an understanding of the position.
“I wanna see them be the catchers here for the next 15 years,” Hedges said. “If that happens, I’ll be so proud of my year here this year.”
The offensive component with Hedges will hopefully come.
Hitting coach Andy Haines saw him in San Diego, and they’ve recreated a situation where Hedges is moving like he did in 2017, when he hit 18 home runs. It’s also secondary to guiding the pitching stuff.
Watch Hedges catch a bullpen, and it’s a work of art. He screams with excitement when a pitcher perfectly executes a pitch. He emphasizes when certain pitches work better and asks for feedback on setups.
At the end, there’s usually a high- five and a lengthy debriefing on what just happened, the notes somehow sticking in Hedges’ brain, filed away for the next time he catches that pitcher.
“When Bednar is pitching, in his mind, he’s Dave, ... just being Dave on the mound, when all of Pittsburgh is like, ‘That’s our closer!’ ” Hedges said. “I have to tap into Dave, not David Bednar.
“When I can establish a human relationship with the pitcher, then I have their trust. And when you have success with guys, it always helps.”