SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane Indians third baseman Ethan Hedges has a simple motto.
“You need to have belief,” Hedges said. “You need to believe that you belong. You need to believe that you’re right where you’re supposed to be.”
He has a reminder on his wrist every time he goes up to bat or trots out to the field.
“So, I think I like having this on my wrist just because it’s easy to look down and tell myself, you know, just believe,” Hedges said. “As long as you got belief, you got something right.”
Hedges got the belief wristbands when he played for the USC Trojans, helping make t-shirts with the phrase “Mucho Belief”, and it all helped lead Southern Cal to an NCAA Regional Final last season.
Playing at the uber-talented Mater Dei High School and USC for college taught Hedges how to learn from failure and respond.
“Being thrown into a really good high school, really good, competition, taught me quickly that it’s not always going to come easy,” Hedges said. “And I think that that’s a really valuable lesson that I learned pretty early in my life, which is a good thing.”
Drafted by the Colorado Rockies just last season, Hedges skipped Low-A Fresno and arrived in Spokane last year, now starting 2026 with the Indians as a top-20 Rockies prospect.
“I couldn’t have imagined that feeling or dreamt that feeling in any aspect of what it was,” Hegdes said. “It was a sum of all my hard work up until that day. And then I quickly realized that it’s going to take a lot more hard work to get where I want to go.”
“Defensively, he’s been exceptional over there,” Spokane manager Tom Sutaris said. “I knew he was good last year, and the more I got to see him, the more I realize how special he is. And he’s tapped into a little bit of power that I know is in there.”
Coach Sutaris added that Hedges’ leadership skills emerged well already in the early season.
“He just shows up every day,” Sutaris said. “He works, and he talks game. Very, very bright player. He and a couple of the other guys are just always talking about situations that come up in the game and how they can handle them.”
Hedges leads the Indians in RBIs and doubles, and is tied for second in runs, second in hits, and in slugging percentage. He’s well on his way to a standout full year in the Inland Northwest.
“This game, it asks a lot of you,” Hedges said. “But the more I can show up every day and then be consistent, I think that’s going to help me as well as this team kind of be and get where we want to be.”
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