I think the evidence is abundant. Austin Hedges has had 1351 plate appearances in the majors (Roberto Perez has had 1522). In those plate appearances, Hedges has shown no propensity to draw walks. Not ever. Roberto Perez has. On numerous occasions.
Hedges is a lifetime .198 BA/.255 OBP; his highest OBP ever was .282. Next highest? .262. Perez is .212/.302 with OBP seasons of .348, .321, 291, 285. When Roberto is comfortable and confident, his strike zone judgment is pretty good. Hedge's strike zone judgment has always been abysmal.
Please don't let our years of watching Perez hit (or not) cloud our judgment of the other guy we've seen little of who has NEVER shown the ability to be a major league hitter. When Perez is going well, he has an idea at the plate. Austin has a poor man's (really poor man's) Woodie Held approach: "Swing hard in case you hit it."
Now, having said all that, there's definitely some thunder in Austin's bat. He has consistently ranked as one of the top long fly ball hitters in the game. That counts for something, even if most of those fly balls harmlessly find gloves and there's precious few of them since he swings like he's playing tee ball...with no ball on the tee. Of course, Perez is strong like bull himself; but unlike Hedges he can take pitches a long way the opposite way, which plays well in Progressive's friendly right-center field.
Don't be mistaken: I wanted the Indians to tender Austin. Had they not, I'd have been furious. I'm tired of the Plawecki's and Sandy Leon's. Austin Hedges is an ELITE defender, right up there with Roberto. And because defense matters, and when you toss some offense on top of it like 2019 Perez did, I wouldn't be so quick to say the Tribe won't pick up Berto's option. In fact, I think it's better than 50-50 that Roberto is back in 2022, even without seeing 2021 results.