Batting average .168 Name Austin Hedges Date joined 2015 Runs batted in 11 Salary 424,303 USD (2015) | Home runs 3 Weight 91 kg Hits 23 Role Baseball catcher | |
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Current team San Diego Padres (#18 / Catcher) Similar People Hunter Renfroe, Dave Roberts, Bud Black | ||
Austin hedges prospect video catcher lake elsinore storm
Austin Charles Hedges (born August 18, 1992) is an American professional baseball catcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball.
Contents
- Austin hedges prospect video catcher lake elsinore storm
- Austin Hedges on Working with Pitchers
- Professional career
- References
Austin Hedges on Working with Pitchers
Professional career
Hedges was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the second round of the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft out of JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California. He had committed to UCLA, but signed with the Padres for $3 million.
Prior to the 2012 season, Baseball America ranked Hedges as the Padres fifth best prospect. Playing for the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League, Hedges hit .279/.334/.451 with 10 home runs in 96 games. Scouts considered Hedges to be a stand-out defender who had surprised them with his batting at Class-A.
In 2013, MLB.com ranked Hedges the fourth best catching prospect in the minors. He started the year with the Class-A Advanced Lake Elsinore Storm where he hit .270 with four home runs in 66 games. He was promoted to the Double-A San Antonio Missions in August where he hit .224 in 20 games. He was also named to the All-Star Futures Game in 2013.
Hedges received a non-roster invitation to the big league spring training camp for the second time in 2014. He was ranked #27 on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects list coming into the season.
In 2015, Hedges joined the El Paso Chihuahuas of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League. The Padres promoted Hedges to the major leagues on May 4. On May 6, Hedges notched his first Major League hit, an RBI single in the third inning of a game against the San Francisco Giants. He recorded 137 plate appearances during the 2015 season, hitting for a .168 batting average. In the offseason, Hedges played for the Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League.
Hedges was invited to spring training in 2016, but began the season in El Paso. In April, he was diagnosed with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand, and missed six to eight weeks of the season.