All-Time Indians: Ron Hassey

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Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Ron Hassey was initially drafted out of high school by the Reds in 1972, but chose to continue on with his education at the University of Arizona after which he was taken by the Indians in 1975. Already 23 in his professional debut, Hassey burned through A and AA ball in his first year, then stood out in his only year in AAA in 1977.

The Indians catching situation at the time wasn’t great and in fact hadn’t been since Ray Fosse had his shoulder destroyed by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star game. The Indians had brought Fosse back in 1976 to rectify the issue, but would trade him mid-season in 1977, giving way to Fred Kendall. Kendall would then be traded during Spring Training 1978 for another catcher, Bo Diaz, among others. It was into this confusion that Hassey entered. Gary Alexander would be the primary starter for 1978 with Diaz and Ron Pruitt playing behind the plate as well, but Hassey wouldn’t have to wait long for his turn as he made his Major League debut in late April, then played semi-regularly through mid-June. Given the Indians many options and his poor play, however, he was sent back to AAA for the rest of the year.

In 1979, Hassey would break camp with the team, but play in just one game before a return to AAA. Back in mid-June, he would start off slow, but eventually become a regular as he played nearly every day and wound up hitting .286/.339/.404. The Indians would continue on with the large catching crew of Alexander, Diaz and Pruitt into 1980, but now Hassey was the leader. He’d play 130 games, the first catcher to do so for Cleveland after Dave Duncan in 1974.

Offensively, Hassey had a season comparable to Fosse’s from a decade earlier and, along with Rookie phenom Joe Charboneau and Miguel Dilone (who set the franchise stolen base record) brought some excitement to an Indians offense that had been lacking for years. This season would be, by far, Hassey’s best in his career with a bWAR near 4.0, 18 doubles and 65 RBI.

Hassey would be unable to repeat anything near his excellent 1980 the following season and ended up splitting time evenly with Diaz. Batting just .232/.297/.268, Hassey flipped from being a poor defender who hit better than average to a batter more representative of the position who was one of the better defenders. While he wouldn’t return to being an offensive force, he remains to this day one of the Indians best career defenders, catching 34% of base stealers with 9 pick offs, only 24 passed balls and an Indians record .994 fielding percent that has only been surpassed since by Victor Martinez.

After his weak 1981 season, he played in over 100 games in both 1982 and 1983, improving to a .251/.356/.353 line in 1982, then .270/.342/.384 in ’83. Hassey’s back-up in 1983 was Chris Bando and he would wind up pulling a similar move to Hassey in 1980. After his 1983 season gave the team some confidence in him, an injury to Hassey’s knee in 1984 allowed Bando to take over the starters role and he also had a breakout offensive season. With Bando taking over, Hassey was free to move and the Indians traded him in June to the Cubs along with Rick Sutcliffe and George Frazier for Joe Carter, Mel Hall and Don Shulze.

While Carter and Hall would come up big for the Tribe, and Sutcliffe would go to two more All-Star games over seven seasons with Chicago, Hassey would only play out the rest of the season before being traded to New York. The next year, he was traded from the Yankees to the White Sox, then went back to New York before the 1986 season began, then was sent back to Chicago again in July. Finally escaping this merry-go-round, Hassey became a free agent after the 1987 season, signing with Oakland. While he would never stand out as a hitter for either the White Sox or the Yankees, in Oakland he would be part of three play-off teams including two World Series losing clubs in 1988 and 1990. He would play one season after this in Montreal before retiring after the 1991 season.

Immediately after his playing career, Hassey joined the Yankees as a scout, then the expansion Rockies as a coach in 1993. He worked in the minors for the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Mariners until most recently joining the Marlins staff in 2004, last managing in 2014 in AAA.

As an Indian, despite the short total career and even shorter prime Hassey remains one of the top 15 offensive catchers and top ten defensively. While the Indians pitching staffs were lacking in talent for most of Hassey’s career, he did have the distinction of catching Len Barker‘s perfect game in 1981, then became the only catcher in baseball history to catch two in 1991 when he caught Dennis Martinez‘s perfecto for Montreal.]]>