Skip to main content
MLB Deserve-to-Win
← All hitters·All pitchers

Austin Hedges

2026
Guardians· C · bats R · throws R· 247 plate appearances
Compare

Grade

His grade shows how good he has been, and at what.
Fbetter than 2% of hitters at creating bases

He's running above his established level this season, so a cooler stretch wouldn't be a surprise.

Patient Contact

Works counts and puts the ball in play; modest slug.

Still searching for results at the plate

Austin Hedges keeps the strikeouts in check. He strikes out less often than 73% of qualified hitters. The overall production lags, though. Only 2% of qualified hitters create fewer estimated bases per plate appearance.

247 plate appearances · data through 2026-09-27.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size, not a raw season stat, and farther out is better. A ↓ marks a stat where a lower number is better, and its spoke is flipped so farther out still means better. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. EB/PA is estimated bases, HR% home runs, BB% walks and K% strikeouts, each per plate appearance, and Hard-hit% is balls hit 95 mph or harder. Percentiles compare him with 534 qualified hitters, the ones with 50 or more plate appearances.

Plays like…

Each of these hitters shares his archetype and sits closest to him in EB/PA. Pick one to see him side by side with Austin Hedges.

Darell HernaizAthleticsHyeseong KimDodgersBlake PerkinsBrewersVictor Scott IICardinals

Hitter type

See what kind of hitter he is, next to the rest of the league.

Hitter type

He controls the strike zone better than most, and he hits the ball hard less often than most.

League best:BB% − K% Josue De Paula (14.3%)Hard-hit% Yohandy Morales (62.5%)

How to read this chart
Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate) and squaring the ball up (hard-hit rate). Up and to the right is better on both. Every dot is a hitter with at least 40 plate appearances this season, and dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Austin HedgesLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).434.511—
Walk rate(higher = better)10%8%65th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)18%23%73rd

A higher percentile is better, and the 99th is the top of the league.

Platoon splits

See how he hits left-handed and right-handed pitchers.

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

He hits lefties better than righties, by 0.044 EB/PA.

50% probable range: +0.022 to +0.067

vs LHP130 PA0.392

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.392 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.369 to 0.416, based on 130 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.441 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.424 EB/PA.

vs RHP118 PA0.348

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.348 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.326 to 0.368, based on 118 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.382 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.433 EB/PA.

0.3130.3460.3800.4130.446
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

His split is wider than the typical righty bat's (median 0.035). He sits below the league median against both hands.

He sits in the league's middle half vs lefties and the league's bottom quarter vs righties.

How to read this chart
  • Each dot is his estimate against that hand, with its 50% probable range as the bar. Higher is better.
  • The diamond is his raw rate, which small samples make noisy, so the simulator pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy value.
  • The dashed tick is the league median, and the shaded strip is the middle half of hitters with 50 or more plate appearances.
  • Tap or hover a mark for its number. LHP and RHP are left- and right-handed pitchers. More on the About page

How he hits

See what his contact is worth and what pitchers throw him.

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where he does the most damage.

Best batted balls

Every ball Austin Hedges put in play this season is drawn where it landed.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Winston SantosHome run
102 mph · 31° · worth 3.8 bases
07/01 vs Rangers
vs Chris RoycroftHome run
103 mph · 39° · worth 3.7 bases
07/24 vs Rays
vs Blake WeimanHome run
102 mph · 27° · worth 3.3 bases
08/24 vs Angels
vs Ryan YarbroughDouble
105 mph · 22° · worth 3.1 bases
06/10 vs Yankees
vs Gerrit ColeSingle
110 mph · 19° · worth 2.5 bases
06/09 vs Yankees

Luck check

How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB), what the contact was worth no matter what the defense did with it. Darker means more bases, so a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.

Performance by pitch type

2026 · 933 pitches

Each row shows the bases he adds per 100 pitches of one type, against the league.

← below league medianabove league median →
Four-Seam Fastball (311 pitches)
−1.5
Lg median −0.4Lg best +8.7
Sinker (173 pitches)
−1.4
Lg median −1.3Lg best +9.7
Slider (141 pitches)
+0.2
Lg median −0.5Lg best +12.2
Cutter (97 pitches)
−0.7
Lg median −0.4Lg best +16.4
Changeup (71 pitches)
+2.3
Lg median −0.5Lg best +16.5
Sweeper (71 pitches)
−6.5
Lg median −0.2Lg best +15.7
Other (69 pitches)

+1.5 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Each row is the bases he adds per 100 pitches of that type, on the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100” but from the hitter’s side. Every pitch counts. Taking a ball adds value, whiffing loses it, and the pitch that ends the plate appearance scores its outcome against what that count usually produces. A value of +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Higher is better. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Deserved vs. actual

Austin Hedges has been credited with about the bases his contact earned so far.

Deserved by his own contact76
Actually credited to him81

Both bars count only his 176 balls in play, so walks and strikeouts are left out.

How to read this chart
Every ball he puts in play is worth the bases its exit velocity, launch angle and direction usually earn. If the second bar is longer than the first, his results have run ahead of his contact and he has been lucky. If it is shorter, he has been unlucky.

Swing

See how fast he swings and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Bat speed · 369 swings
68.6 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.4 mph)
Lg median

He swings slower than most hitters. His swing length and attack angle both sit in the league's middle range. With two strikes, he cuts his bat speed more than most hitters. His bat travels on a flatter path than most.

Attack angle
9.0°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
7.2 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
26.1°
Lg median 31.4°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Bat speed counts competitive swings only, so bunts and check swings under 50 mph are left out.
  • Swing length is how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing. Attack angle is the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt is how steep the bat’s path is.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own. Swing style trades power against contact, and the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars. More on the About page

Timing

See whether his swing meets the ball early or late, over or under. Tracking starts in mid-2023.

Timing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Perfect contact · 392 swings
23.5%
Lg median 22.6%Lg best 37.9%
On-time swings
67.6%
Lg median 64.6%Lg best 79.6%
Miss distance on whiffs
4.6 in
Lg median 3.0 inLg best 1.0 in

He squares the ball up about as often as most hitters. When his timing is off, it's usually early, about 13 ms ahead of perfect timing. When he misses vertically, it's more often under the ball than over it. More of his mishits come from reaching at pitches away from him than from getting tied up inside.

Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Perfect contact is a swing that is centered, on time and lined up, all at once. On-time swings land within 7 milliseconds of ideal timing. Higher is better on both.
  • Miss distance counts swings and misses only. It is how far the barrel half of the bat passed from the ball, in inches, and lower is better.
  • League comparisons cover hitters with 100 or more tracked swings this season. Switch hitters have both sides combined.
  • More on the About page

How he sets up

See where he stands in the box and how his feet are set, next to the league-average setup.

How he sets up

He sets up 31° open, while the average hitter is 11° open.

Top-down batting stance vs league averagePitcher ↑

Each point is his average setup for one month this season, about a second before each pitch.

Middle half of the leagueLg median
His feetLg avg
How to read this chart
  • This is an overhead view of the batter’s box. The dots are his feet about one second before the pitch, and the rings are the league-average setup.
  • Open means his front foot is pulled off the line to the plate, and closed means it steps toward it. Neither is better or worse.
  • The chart is his monthly average this season. The band and dashed line are the middle half and the median of hitters over the whole season.
  • On the angle chart, below zero is open and above zero is closed.
  • Data through 2026-09-27. More on the About page

Best games

These are his biggest games this season.

Best games

These are his best games this season, ranked by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Austin Hedges

Compared with last season, his HR% is down, his K% is down, his Barrel% is up, his GB% is up and his FB% is down.

Actual rates show what happened on the field, season by season.