Yankees Birthday of the Day: Ron Hassey

Ron Hassey had a perfectly nice MLB career, but there’s not much that’s especially memorable if you just look at his career stats. He had a right around average 101 wRC+. He put up 16.9 fWAR in 14 seasons, spending a lot of time as a backup catcher, or at least one that split time a lot.

Yet, he did have a memorable career in the sense that there are several “fun facts” that you can name that directly involve him.

Ronald William “Ron” Hassey
Born: February 27, 1953 (Tucson, AZ)
Yankees Tenure: 1985-86

Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Hassey came to prominence in baseball in the city. He was a star at Tucson High School, helping them to a state championship, and getting selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 MLB Draft. However, he instead opted to go to college and attended the University of Arizona right in his home town.

After a couple seasons there, the Royals took him in the 1975 draft. Kansas City planned on moving Hassey to his eventual big league position of catcher, so he opted to turn down the deal and spend a year working behind the plate at the college level. The move worked somewhat in two ways. In 1976, he moved up his draft position by a couple rounds when he was eventually selected by Cleveland that year, and he also helped Arizona win the ‘76 College World Series.

Thanks to his impressive hitting, Hassey pretty quickly worked through the minors and was called up to the big leagues in 1978. He went up and down a couple times before finally fully earning a place on Cleveland’s roster in June 1979. He was pretty solid that season, and followed that up with arguably his career-best year in 1980, putting up 3.7 fWAR with a 131 wRC+.

In 1981, Hassey was behind the plate when Cleveland pitcher Len Barker threw a perfect game against the Blue Jays on May 15th. While Hassey’s defensive skills weren’t always the most highly regarded, he was widely praised for his work that day.

However, that defensive work eventually led him to be publicly criticized with manager Mike Ferraro in the coming years. Eventually, Hassey would be included in a trade that sent him, George Frazier, and, most notably, pitcher Rick Sutcliffe to the Cubs in 1984. Hassey put up pretty good hitting numbers with the Cubs, but an injury limited him to just 19 games following the trade. With Chicago making the NLCS with catcher Jody Davis contributing solidly, that led to the Cubs also deciding to move Hassey on. That offseason, he was part of a six-player deal that brought him to the Yankees.

Splitting duties with Butch Wynegar, Hassey then put up probably the best purely offensive season of his career in 1985. He hit a career high 13 home runs to go along with a 140 OPS+. Despite that, he would once again be on the market. With Carlton Fisk a free agent that offseason, the Yankees had an interest and sent Hassey to the White Sox for pitcher Britt Burns. But Fisk then opted to re-sign with the White Sox, leaving Hassey in a reduced role once again.

With rumors flying around, the White Sox initially insisted they would keep Hassey despite bringing back Fisk. However, the Yankees now once again had room for a catcher. In February 1986, barely two moths after the initial trade, Hassey went back the other way, as the White Sox traded him to the Yankees. Even more amusing, prospect Glenn Braxton, who had gone from the White Sox to the Yankees in the first trade, was sent back to Chicago too.

With Hassey once again in the Bronx, he again performed admirably, especially at the plate. In 62 games, he put up a 131 OPS+. In July, the Yankees found themselves still in the AL East race, four games back of first. Looking to make some savvy additions to shore up other spots, they considered Hassey expendable and once again traded him at the deadline. The most fascinating part was that they traded him to…the White Sox? For the third time in barely 18 months, Hassey was the subject of a trade between the Yankees and White Sox. No Glenns Braxton were involved in the trade this time.

After that, Hassey spent a couple years in Chicago, a couple with the Athletics, and ended his career with the Expos in 1991. In that final season in Montreal, Hassey made some history when he caught another perfect game, this one from Dennis Martínez on July 28th. Hassey became the first — and so far, still only — catcher to have ever caught two perfect games in their career. Others have done multiple no-hitters, but no one has matched Hassey yet. That’s a funny feat considering that offense was more his calling card.

Following his retirement from playing, Hassey spent many years as a coach in several organizations, both at the major and minor league levels. He’s since retired back to Arizona.

You occasionally see a player get caught in a loop between two specific teams in the DFA/waiver market. They’re usually minor league/depth pieces who probably won’t ever take up a significant role on either team. Ron Hassey was a legitimately pretty solid player for both the Yankees and White Sox, but they couldn’t stop playing hot potato with him.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.