Why Hedges' value extends far beyond diamond

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell's Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Austin Hedges signing makes so much sense for the Guardians.

It’s easy to pull up his stats and question why this team would want to bring him back yet again. Hedges has spent parts of four years in Cleveland now and has collectively hit .166 with a .487 OPS (that’s a mere 38 OPS+). For a team constantly looking for more offense, this isn’t the answer. For an organization that’s always tight on payroll, this seems like an odd way to spend some cash. And yet, Hedges’ teammates will tell you he’s the most valuable guy in the room.

As simple as it is to dismiss the compliments and move on to another player who may have a better offensive reputation than Hedges, it’d be crazy to ignore the feedback from everyone in the clubhouse, because there’s a tremendous amount of truth behind it.

There’s a recipe to success that Hedges has within his outrageous personality and unique character. It’s a contagious energy that welcomes every teammate -- young, old, new, pitcher, position player, etc. -- into the group. It’s an innate ability to bond every person to create a chemistry among a roster that leads to more success on the field.

When Hedges is around, good things follow simply because of the vibes he creates. It’s something he realized he could tap into during the 2019, ’20 and ’21 seasons.

“Well, it kind of all started with not hitting very well,” Hedges said with a laugh. “I had to look myself in the mirror and be like, ‘How am I going to stay in the game?’”

Hedges hit above the Mendoza Line in just two of his 10 big league seasons (2017 and '18 with San Diego). His OPS+ has never hit the league-average 100 mark. He had the self-awareness to realize that at some point, his exceptional defense may not be enough to outweigh his lack of offensive production. He needed to have at least one more asset in his toolbox to make sure he was irreplaceable.

“In that conversation with myself,” Hedges continued, “is when it really started making a whole lot more sense to me the value that a good teammate can bring to a clubhouse.”

Starting in ’22, this approach was second nature.

It seems like too much of a coincidence that as Hedges settled into his "ultimate clubhouse guy" role, the 2022 Guardians outperformed what anyone thought the youngest team in baseball could do. The next season, he played a major role in the clubhouse in the final weeks of the Rangers’ World Series run. When he was back in Cleveland in 24, he once again helped turn a young, raw group into a triumphant, gritty and fun team that went all the way to the ALCS.

Manager Stephen Vogt was the one who said Hedges wasn’t “just the mascot” at the end of the season. The Guardians value his defense. They reaped benefits of timely hits from him several times this season. He wouldn’t be on the roster to be a cheerleader. However, this skill that he’s perfected has given him way more opportunities than he would have had without it.

If you walk by Vogt’s office before a game, it’s never surprising if Hedges is sitting in there. If you walk by after a game … once again, it’s not surprising if Hedges is sitting in there. He became this conduit between the coaching staff and the clubhouse, helping relay messages in a player-friendly way while also supporting his first-time manager’s wishes -- something Vogt praised him for at the end of the season.

“Not many people would look for help in certain ways,” Hedges said of Vogt. “It made me feel very valuable, just because I know how far words from a teammate go more so than from a manager or a coach.”

A right-hand man to the manager and a big brother to everyone on the roster, Hedges is a win-win for the Guardians’ organization. Everyone benefits from his presence, and there’s more than enough proof to show that he helps this young group play better.

Re-signing Hedges can’t be the only move of Cleveland’s offseason. The club needs more pitching. It needs offensive help. It needs to expand upon the foundation that was built in ’24 to avoid repeating what happened from ’22 to ’23.

But Hedges being the first step of this offseason blueprint just makes sense.

“If I can do something about that to help at least play a carefree, hard-nosed version of baseball, first of all, they're going to play better, but they're going to be happier,” Hedges said. “It started becoming clear to me that if you got 26 dudes all doing that, for whatever reason, we end up winning a lot of ballgames.”