Jonah Heim is all of us.
OK, maybe that’s a little presumptuous of me. But I assume most passionate fans of a team are like I am—quick to fall for the Adrians and Lukas and Emmitts who are uniquely gifted and flash it the minute they arrive, but also latching onto the Ian Kinslers, the Jalen Brunsons, the Leon Letts. The ones who were draft day afterthoughts, seized something that wasn’t handed to them, and balled out at a level most first-rounders never reach, seizing us in the process.
Now, labeling Heim as an anonymous draft pick is slightly unfair; he was Baltimore’s fourth-round pick in 2013, and the 10th catcher taken in that draft. Two of those 10 were Orioles: a second-round pick you haven’t heard of (Chance Sisco) and Heim, a 17-year-old out of a Buffalo suburb who chose Rookie ball in Sarasota over Michigan State.
Then he was traded (for a player you probably haven’t heard of).
Then he was traded again (for another player you probably haven’t heard of).
Then he was traded again, this time to Texas, in a five-player deal before the 2021 season that featured players you have certainly heard of. Heim, at the time, wasn’t one of them.
He was 25 years old, a veteran of 2,001 minor-league plate appearances over seven years along with 13 major-league games in 2020, the year that had no minor-league season. (He had debuted against the Rangers in Texas in late August, batting in front of A’s teammate Marcus Semien on that night.) Though MLB.com promptly pegged Heim as the Rangers’ No. 25 prospect, I suggested I probably would have slotted him as high as No. 7 or as low as No. 15, which is where I had 21-year-old catcher David Garcia. They were both well behind my No. 2, Sam Huff.
At the big-league level, 38-year-old Jeff Mathis had been allowed to move on, with Jose Trevino set to take over starting duties. The 23-year-old Huff was coming off a gaudy 1.136 OPS in a 10-game MLB debut the summer before and was poised to step in as Trevino’s sidekick, if not eventually more. But the Rangers wanted Huff to get in at least another half-season on the farm. In the meantime, the plan was for journeyman Drew Butera to back up Trevino.
But Heim had a strong camp defensively and beat out Butera. Meanwhile, a hamstring injury had ended Huff’s 2021 spring training early, and a month later he needed knee surgery. Suddenly Huff was out of the picture, at least until 2022.
Heim didn’t hit much that season, although his work behind the plate was strong. He started nine of the Rangers’ 27 games in April. Then 12 each in May and June. Another 16 in the All-Star break-interrupted July. By then, Huff was back from rehabbing his knee but playing only first base in the minors.
Trevino—not Heim for a change—was months from being traded. Heim, having to prove himself to a fourth organization, was at long last his team’s idea of the answer behind the plate.
He not only got 165 more plate appearances in 2022, but he also added roughly 100 OPS points (.598 to .697). The defense-first catcher was suddenly a switch-hitting contributor on offense, especially from the right side.
And then there was 2023, which needs little setup. Heim made the All-Star team. Won a Gold Glove. Boosted his OPS dramatically again, this time to .755. Drove in 95 runs, despite spending 15 games on the injured list. Threw out 29 percent of those attempting to steal, blowing away the 21 percent league average, and was the league’s best at framing pitches and stealing strikes.
Caught the final pitch of the World Series.
All season Heim was praised by his batterymates for how “on the same page” they were, night after night, right through the playoffs, when he shepherded a pitching staff that went 13-4 with a 3.83 ERA, nearly half a run better than it had been during the season.
And he was a warrior, starting 133 games behind the plate (regular season plus playoffs); in the last 10 seasons, only six times has a catcher started more often. Five of those seasons belong to future Hall of Famers Yadier Molina and Salvador Perez and borderline Cooperstown candidate J.T. Realmuto.
Heim was worth $31.7 million in 2023, according to FanGraphs. His pre-arbitration salary? $745,660. With his three arbitration years now underway, I confidently suggested this spring that Texas ought to lock Heim up for two years and $30 million, with a $12.5 million club option for a third.
Here’s where the fairy tale turned for Heim, much as it did for his team. Maybe we should have seen it coming.
Heim’s 2023 workload included 582 plate appearances, a staggering number topped by only three catchers, each a multi-time All-Star: Realmuto and two 25-year-olds, Adley Rutschman and William Contreras. And for Heim, it was severely backloaded. He returned on August 13 from the injured list stay (for a torn wrist tendon sheath that was initially feared to require season-ending surgery) and sat the day after that. Thereafter, he was rested only three times in the remaining 43 regular-season games, with Mitch Garver no longer trusted defensively and Austin Hedges a zero on offense.
Then came the playoffs, when Heim caught 16 complete games. The only playoff outing he didn’t was Game 1 of the World Series, when he settled for only holding down the first eight innings. The final damage: 2,390 pitches caught in those 17 games of unrelenting intensity.
Through July 19, Heim was hitting .287 with an .835 OPS over 337 plate appearances. Thereafter, including the playoffs: .202 with a .597 OPS in 235 trips.
Neither he nor the Rangers (nor you or me) would do any of it differently, of course. But such an abnormal workload takes a toll, especially at the position he plays. Before his late-July shutdown, Heim started 77.7 percent of the Rangers’ games behind the plate. After returning from the injury (but not fully recovered from it), that rate jumped to 80 percent the rest of the regular season, then 100 percent in the playoffs.
And, of course, after playing more baseball than he ever had, and more frequently than he ever had, and under more pressure than he ever had, he then had a shortened offseason to recover from it all.
By all accounts, Heim came to spring training this year healthy and stayed that way all season. There were no trips to the injured list. Still, despite a far more manageable 491 plate appearances, what had been a year-to-year rise in OPS took a chutes-and-ladders fall in 2024, dropping to .602—the lowest mark in baseball of any hitter who batted at least 400 times.
Andrew Knizner had been brought in to take some of the load off of Heim, which he did to an extent. But he hit at a Hedges level and didn’t provide nearly that level of defense. So Texas sent two fringe prospects to the Tigers before the trade deadline for rental Carson Kelly, which led to less Heim work even when there was still a playoff spot to chase. He started 81 percent (73 percent at catcher) of the Rangers’ games in the four months before Kelly arrived, and only 61 percent (57 percent at catcher) of the time afterwards. The rest didn’t help: Heim hit .189 in that latter stretch, with only eight extra-base hits in 38 games. His caught-stealing rate for the year dipped to 13 percent, far below league average and the worst of his career.
For me, catcher is the second-greatest position in sports, next to quarterback. Heim is an outlier—agile at 6-foot-4, with gorgeous power mechanics from both sides of the plate; a player who took seven years to get to the big leagues but vibes like he was born to lead a staff of veteran pitchers and wide-eyed rookies alike.
But he’s also, like us, human. Even as a huge part of the Rangers’ majestic 2023 run, he didn’t present as a superhero like Adolis. Or inevitable like Corey. Or miraculous like Evan. Or perpetual like Marcus.
He spiked in 2023. As his team did. Exceeded expectations—something you could bookmark several times in his story—and then he didn’t.
One of the enduring images I have of the 2024 season is the sight of Heim, shoulders repeatedly slumped, after yet another rollover bouncer to second or a lazy fly to center. His body language mirrored ours, to be sure, but still it bummed me out. He’ll be 30 at the midpoint of next season, still two years away from free agency and the kind of income that can be attached to it. He’s only now starting to make good money in baseball terms, but if 2023 turns out to be more of an outlier than 2024 was for him, he may not get the chance to land those eight-figure salaries that set up the grandkids.
I’m sad, of course, that this offseason is longer than last year’s was. But because it has to be this way, I’m at least happy for the catcher that it is. My wish for him is a restful, rejuvenating winter—and a solid 1A to pair with him behind the plate in 2025 to ease his workload. Maybe the stats will ease back upward, too. I would much rather Heim’s 2024 be looked back on as underachieving than his 2023 be pegged as overachieving. Same as his team’s season.
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