Catcher Austin Hedges has been traded to the Rangers for international bonus pool money.
The club announced the deal shortly after the 6:00 p.m. trade deadline.
The way the international market works is the Pirates can now spend more on free agents, rather than have money actual exchange hands.
Hedges was signed to a one-year deal this winter, with the plan being that he was going to serve as the Pirates' starting catcher until the team's two catching prospects, Endy Rodríguez and Henry Davis, were ready to take the job. Davis has played almost exclusively right field since his mid-June promotion, while Rodríguez has become the starter since his promotion shortly after the All-Star break.
Defensively, Hedges graded as one of the best defensive backstops in the game, leading all of baseball in framing runs (12.6 by FanGraphs' calculations) and fifth among catcher in defensive runs saved (eight). That made him one of the favorites of the pitching staff.
Offensively, though, he ranked among the bottom of the league, hitting .180 with a .467 OPS over 187 trips to the plate.
From the Rangers' perspective, Hedges fits a much needed void behind the plate. All-Star catcher Jonah Heim is currently out with a wrist injury, and will miss the remainder of the season if surgery is required.
Heim is arguably the best two-way catcher in the game this year, providing both an .816 OPS and elite receiving skills behind the plate, ranking third in MLB in Catcher Framing Runs on Baseball Savant.
Hedges is obviously a liability at the plate, but would give the Rangers' bolstered pitching staff an elite receiver, as he leads MLB in the aforementioned stat in pitch framing.
It's also worth noting the Rangers can afford to have Hedges be a backup that can handle a veteran staff, even in spite of his horrendous bat. Corey Seager's return will be a jolt to their offense. In addition, much of Chris Young's focus has been upgrading the Texas pitching staff. Adding Hedges to help steal strikes could make arms such as Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi and Jordan Montgomery even more valuable.
