CLEVELAND -- Austin Hedges met with the Guardians’ brass near the end of the 2025 season. The 33-year-old was set to become a free agent, and he made it clear that Cleveland was where he wanted to be for a long time.
It did not take the two sides long to consummate a reunion. The Guardians have re-signed Hedges to a one-year contract, the club announced on Wednesday. The deal is worth $4 million plus $500,000 in incentives, MLB.com confirmed, as first reported by MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.
Hedges was one of three Guardians players who was set to become a free agent this offseason, along with outfielder Lane Thomas and reliever Jakob Junis. Instead, the beloved backstop and team leader will return for a sixth season in Cleveland.
“I told them, ‘This is where I want to be for years moving forward,’” Hedges said during a Wednesday Zoom session. “I want to finish my career in Cleveland, whatever that means.
“If that means a year, if that means I can grind another 10 years out, then great. But Cleveland's home to me, and I want nothing more than to bring a World Series to the people here.”
While Bo Naylor has emerged as the Guardians’ starting catcher, Hedges has remained a key cog to the team’s success behind the plate and inside a clubhouse full of many up-and-coming players.
The Guardians once were 15 1/2 games out of first place in the AL Central this summer. They went on to make a historic comeback to clinch their second consecutive division title, and folks around the team continually pointed to Hedges as a stabilizing presence in the room.
“He's always talking in the dugout. He's talking with the starters who aren't pitching,” manager Stephen Vogt said of Hedges last month. “He's talking with the other hitters. He's actively engaged in chatter and keeping our guys focused. He's a great leader, great teammate. He pushes everyone around him to get better.
“[What] Austin brings on the field, obviously, is a huge amount of value. But what he brings in the clubhouse, in the dugout with his teammates is equal to that. We wouldn't be where we are without Hedgey, not only on the field, but in the clubhouse as well.”
Those intangibles led the Guardians to bring back Hedges on a one-year deal each of the past two offseasons. They initially acquired him from the Padres at the 2020 Trade Deadline, but he departed for the Pirates as a free agent following the ’22 season and went on to win the ’23 World Series with the Rangers.
“I had the opportunity to be a free agent [entering] ’23,” Hedges said. “I kind of chased a little bit of a different opportunity. And in learning from that, I learned how valuable peace and joy and happiness and love in a group that you have, how important that is.”
This past season, while Hedges recorded a .527 OPS at the plate in 70 games (.820 over 12 games in September), he once more was one of the best defensive catchers in the Majors. He was tied with the Yankees’ Austin Wells for third among qualified backstops in catcher framing runs (11).
Hedges was tied with the Mets’ Luis Torrens for first among qualified catchers in caught stealing percentage (43 percent). All the while, Guardians pitchers recorded a 3.72 ERA in his 479 2/3 innings when Hedges was behind the plate.
With Hedges rejoining the fold, the Guardians could feature three catchers again next season. Along with Naylor, David Fry is set to return to catching after he was limited to DH duties in 2025, following the Tommy John surgery he underwent last November.
As we saw in 2024, Fry’s ability to play around the diamond affords the Guardians an ability to mix and match in a way most teams cannot.
“We could pinch-hit,” Hedges said, “pinch-catch, pinch-field, do all these pinch things throughout the game -- early in the game, if we needed to -- and kind of treat every game like a playoff game, which is what makes us really good.”
Hedges is glad to be back and contribute however he can as the Guardians look to take another step in 2026.
“However that goes,” Hedges said, “whether that means catching a certain amount of games, catching every game, catching no games, it doesn't matter to me. As long as I'm with this group and contributing to us trying to win a championship, that's really the main reason why I signed back.”