Hayden Dunhurst
American professional baseball catcher for the Modesto Roadsters.
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Hayden Lane Dunhurst (born September 19, 2000) is an American professional baseball catcher for the Modesto Roadsters of the Pioneer League. He played college baseball for the Ole Miss Rebels and was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2022.
Amateur career
Hayden Dunhurst grew up in Carriere, Mississippi, and attended Pearl River Central High School. He committed to play for the Ole Miss Rebels after his freshman season, during which he hit four home runs and posted a .476 slugging percentage. Rather than attending camps or taking formal lessons, he learned catching techniques by watching YouTube videos of Yadier Molina and Salvador Perez.
As a sophomore in 2017, he recorded ten home runs, 37 RBIs, and nine doubles. In his senior year of 2019, he batted .369 with 11 home runs and 37 RBIs, finishing his high school career with 31 home runs. The Colorado Rockies selected him in the 37th round of the 2019 MLB draft, but he chose not to sign.
At Ole Miss in 2020, Dunhurst appeared in 17 games as a freshman, batting .269 with five home runs before the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, as a redshirt freshman, he started 65 games and posted a .280/.385/.435 slash line, with seven home runs, 43 RBIs, and 11 doubles. He earned the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove award for catchers and later made the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.
Entering the 2022 season, he was considered a top draft prospect. After missing a short stretch early in the year due to a tweaked hamstring, he played 56 games, batting .231 with six home runs and 30 RBIs. He helped lead Ole Miss to their first-ever NCAA Championship.
Professional career
Hayden Dunhurst entered professional baseball after the Kansas City Royals selected him in the sixth round of the 2022 MLB draft, 175th overall, and signed him for $300,000. He began his career with the Arizona Complex League Royals.
In 2023, he played for three affiliates: the ACL Royals, the Single-A Columbia Fireflies, and the High-A Quad Cities River Bandits. Across 31 games, he posted a .164/.241/.289 slash line with two home runs and 15 RBIs. The Royals released him on March 27, 2024.
Less than a month later, on April 26, 2024, Dunhurst joined the Kane County Cougars of the American Association. In 48 games, he batted .173 with one home run and 13 RBIs. During the Cougars’ championship run, he started three games alongside catcher Simon Reid, going hitless in each, as Kane County won the Miles Wolff Cup—their first since joining the league in 2021 and the third title in franchise history. He re-signed with the Cougars on March 18, 2025, but never appeared in a game before being released on May 28.
On May 30, 2025, Dunhurst signed with the Lake Country DockHounds of the same league. He appeared in 52 games, hitting .216/.280/.311 with two home runs and 20 RBIs. On January 15, 2026, he signed with the Modesto Roadsters of the Pioneer League.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hayden Dunhurst (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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