diff --git a/acceptance/logs/expected.log b/acceptance/logs/expected.log
index 5a5ed25..3c0b81d 100644
--- a/acceptance/logs/expected.log
+++ b/acceptance/logs/expected.log
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ INFO: 📖 loading runway configuration
 DEBUG: attempting to load config from acceptance/config/config.yml
 INFO: ✅ loaded configuration successfully
 INFO: 🚚 2 projects loaded
-INFO: 🛫 starting runway - version: v0.5.2
+INFO: 🛫 starting runway - version: v0.5.3
 INFO: 📦 starting project project-1
 INFO: 🕐 scheduling event with interval 3s for project-1
 INFO: 📦 starting project project-2
diff --git a/shard.yml b/shard.yml
index 7af3c36..c3742e8 100644
--- a/shard.yml
+++ b/shard.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name: runway
-version: 0.5.2
+version: 0.5.3
 
 authors:
   - GrantBirki
diff --git a/src/runway/events/github_deployment.cr b/src/runway/events/github_deployment.cr
index 9d5b865..4e3ab7d 100644
--- a/src/runway/events/github_deployment.cr
+++ b/src/runway/events/github_deployment.cr
@@ -210,6 +210,13 @@ class GitHubDeployment < BaseEvent
     begin
       deployment_payload = deployment.payload.to_json
       @log.debug { "deployment_payload for #{@repo}: #{deployment_payload}" }
+
+      # if the deployment type is not of the branch-deploy type (or if it's not set), we'll skip hydration
+      if deployment_payload["type"].try(&.to_s) != "branch-deploy"
+        @log.debug { "deployment type is not branch-deploy for #{@repo} - skipping branch_deploy payload hydration" }
+        return nil
+      end
+
       BranchDeployPayload.from_json(deployment_payload)
     rescue e : Exception
       log_message = "failed to parse branch_deploy payload for #{@repo}: #{e.message}"
@@ -233,7 +240,7 @@ class GitHubDeployment < BaseEvent
   # It then sorts the deployments as well
   # @param deployments [String] the deployments raw JSON response
   # @return [Array] the parsed, filtered, and sorted deployments
-  protected def parse_and_filter_deployments(deployments : Octokit::Connection::Paginator(Octokit::Models::Deployment)) : Array
+  protected def parse_and_filter_deployments(deployments : Octokit::Connection::Paginator(Octokit::Models::Deployment)) : Array(Octokit::Models::Deployment)
     deployments = filter_deployments(deployments.records)
     sort_deployments(deployments)
   end
diff --git a/src/version.cr b/src/version.cr
index ed0320f..1c7c730 100644
--- a/src/version.cr
+++ b/src/version.cr
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 module Runway
-  VERSION = "v0.5.2"
+  VERSION = "v0.5.3"
 end