CLEVELAND, OH – The Cleveland Guardians announced today the following transaction relative to the 2024 Major League 40-player roster:
Signed free agent C Austin Hedges to a one-year Major League contract.
Designated INF Alfonso Rivas for assignment.
The roster is currently at 40 players.
Hedges, 31, was an integral member of the 2022 American League Central Division champion Guardians squad that posted 92 wins and advanced to returns to the ALDS. He was the primary catcher on the 2022 squad, finishing tied for sixth among AL catchers in Defensive Runs Saved (8) as Cleveland hurlers posted a 3.37 ERA with him behind the plate and finished the overall campaign with the sixth-lowest ERA in MLB (3.46). Originally acquired by Cleveland from San Diego in a nine-player deal in August of 2020, Hedges was the primary catcher for Cleveland in 2021 and ’22 with the club going a combined 108-74 (.593) in his starts. He split the 2023 season between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers and was a member of all four Postseason rosters for the World Champion Rangers (fifth in MLB with 11 DRS). He began his career in the San Diego organization following his 2011 second round MLB Draft selection and debuted with the Padres in 2015 (leads MLB catchers in DRS since ’15 with 86).
