Phillies Trade Target: Austin Hedges
By Ethan Witte
The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired a number of pitchers recently. Catcher Austin Hedges of the San Diego Padres might be a solid target among position players.
This past week, the Padres traded pitching prospect Casey Kelly to the Atlanta Braves for catching prospect Christian Bethancourt. Not really news that should affect Phillies fans, right? Not so fast, my friends!
The reason this trade could become of interest to us is the ripple effect on the Padres’ depth chart. With the addition of Bethancourt, the Friars now carry four catchers who appear capable of handling a major league pitching staff.
Bethancourt joins Derek Norris, Austin Hedges, and Josmil Pinto to make up that enviable backstop depth. Your opinion on the definition of “capable”, especially in regards to Pinto, may vary. Nevertheless, all four have big league catching experience.
Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors recently opined that Bethancourt seems more likely to be the reserve catcher for 2016, with Norris as the starter and both Hedges and Pinto headed to the minors to serve as depth in case of injury.
Both Hedges and Pinto could be used as trade bait as well, helping San Diego to replenish the prospects lost in last year’s attempt to get into the playoffs. This is the same tactic that the Padres have already used in dealing away all-star closer Craig Kimbrel.
This is where the Phillies come in, and thus our interest.
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The Phillies have assembled a very interesting and potentially deep pitching staff. There is no “ace” in the mold of Clayton Kershaw as yet, and you would have to really squint to call Aaron Nola a true #2 starting pitcher at this point in his career.
But there are a host of options available to the team now, all better than what the team trotted out last season. Maximizing this potential strength is the one of the best possible routes to winning as many games as possible in 2016, and management should capitalize on that.
Nov 7, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA;
Knapp was the Phillies offensive Paul Owens Award winner this season, but his defensive skills behind the plate are a question mark
. (Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Acquiring a top flight defensive catcher would be a boon to the rebuilding Phillies. A primary reason is that it would enhance the talent and development of the pitching staff.
This statement leads into the new realm of advanced catching statistics. Multiple researchers have been able to quantify with increasing accuracy exactly how valuable a strong defensive catcher is to a team. Having a good catcher who is capable of getting the borderline calls and blocking balls in the dirt makes a pitching staff much better.
Take the Pittsburgh Pirates for example. The past few years have seen the team take seemingly broken down pitchers and spin them into (black and) gold – Francisco Liriano, A.J. Burnett, Edinson Volquez coming particularly to mind.
Much of the credit has deservedly gone to pitching coach Ray Searage. But another Pirates constant has been that the team has employed catchers who have ranked at or near the top of the list in the skill of framing pitches.
Getting those extra strikes has enabled the Bucs’ pitchers to be a little more liberal with the strike zone, which entices hitters to swing at pitches they normally would let pass.
Headed into the 2015 season, Hedges was considered one of the top prospects in baseball, mostly on the strength of his defensive reputation. When promoted to the big leagues in May of this past year as a 22-year old, most around the game knew that he would be able to handle the game defensively.
It was predicted that his bat might need a little more patience, however. That evaluation proved to be quite accurate. Hedges produced just a .168/.215/.248 slash line, which obviously didn’t inspire fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers.
According to Fangraphs, the young catcher put up a meager 26 wRC+, dead last in Major League Baseball among players with 150+ plate appearances. However, over the 56 games in which he appeared, even with those horrendous offensive numbers, Hedges wasn’t totally invaluable. Baseball Reference rated him as accumulating -0.2 bWAR, while Fangraphs’ measurements reveal he was worth -0.4 fWAR. How is this possible? Defense.
Hedges was simply one of the best defensive catchers in the game. In examining his framing performance, he produced 8.4 framing runs, fifteenth among all catchers. He produced 0.1 blocking runs, tied for tenth. If that number seems low, the league leader, Brian McCann, produced 0.6 blocking runs. Hedges threw out 33% of would be base stealers, which was 3% above average for this past season.
Compare these defensive results to incumbent Phillies’ catchers Cameron Rupp and Carlos Ruiz. Rupp was mediocre in these departments, ranking toward the middle of the pack in framing, blocking and gunning down runners. The beloved ‘Chooch’, however, was a disaster. He ranked at the bottom of the league in framing, and is only a middling blocker of balls in the dirt.
Aug 7, 2014; Frisco, TX, USA;
One of the Phillies top prospects, Alfaro is a bat-first but defensively challenged catcher, and could he headed for a position switch.
(Photo Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports)
All in all, Hedges was worth his weight behind the plate. He went through what might be one of the worst offensive debuts in history, but the defense resulted in an average overall player, one who would appear to have the talent to get much better.
Letting Hedges take on the task of handling a pitching staff for an entire season would allow him to continue improving his already impressive defensive game, while allowing him to work out his hitting problems with the Phillies big league coaching staff.
The question is: what is Hedges worth in trade? No doubt Padres’ management knows the value of their player on the trade market. While the Phillies have worked hard to build up a stable of young pitchers, it’s a foregone conclusion that any trade would cost the team one or two of the better arms in order to acquire a player of his potential.
There is also the school of thought that acquiring Hedges would block two of the team’s better prospects in catchers Andrew Knapp and Jorge Alfaro. The flip side to that argument is that both of those players, while their offensive profile is their calling card, are not in the same ballpark defensively as Hedges.
Alfaro has already been talked about as a candidate for a position change, potentially as a right fielder due to his 80 grade arm, and Knapp has been projected to be, at best, a below average defender behind the plate. At the very least, the Phillies would have enviable catching depth from the big leagues down through single-A. It would be a nice problem to have.
The chances of acquiring Hedges are probably slim. He was a highly valued prospect just a year ago who came to the Majors and succeeded where he was supposed to succeed, while falling short only where he was predicted to fail.
The overall batting line might cause some less educated fans to recoil in horror. But there is much that would be valuable to the Phillies in the immediate and long-term future. It’s in their best interests to at least explore to possibility of upgrading with Hedges at a position that desperately needs it right now.