Hedges, seeking his Texas debut, was acquired in a Tuesday trade with Pittsburgh
Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has added catcher Austin Hedges (#11) to the active 26-man roster after he reported to the club. To make room for Hedges on the active roster, outfielder Bubba Thompson has been optioned to Triple-A Round Rock.
The 30-year-old Hedges was acquired by the Rangers from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for international bonus pool money in a trade on Tuesday afternoon. He will be in uniform tonight seeking his Rangers debut. He has batted .180 (29-161) with one home run and 14 RBI in 65 games with Pittsburgh this season, starting 61 games behind the plate. He leads Major League catchers in Baseball Prospectus’ ‘Framing Runs’ statistic (15.6), and his 0.023 ‘Called Strikes Above Average’ mark ranks second in MLB behind only San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey (0.024). Hedges has started 595 career games at catcher across nine MLB seasons with San Diego (2015-20), Cleveland (2020-22), and Pittsburgh (2023), throwing out 77 of 363 (21.2%) attempted base stealers.
Thompson last appeared as a pinch-runner on Sunday at San Diego, his only action since being recalled from Round Rock on July 28. He has batted .170 (9-53) with 4 RBI over 37 games/14 starts spanning two stints with Texas this season: Opening Day-June 2 and July 28-August 1.
Following today’s transactions, the Rangers remain at the 40-man limit on the club’s Major League roster, along with three players (Jacob deGrom, Brett Martin, and Jake Odorizzi) on the 60-day Injured List.
