Heim ready to keep career-best year going in ALDS

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BALTIMORE -- Anytime you’re a catcher in Texas and your name is mentioned in the same sentence with Pudge Rodriguez, you’re doing something right.

• ALDS Game 1, presented by Booking.com: Today, noon CT on FS1

Jonah Heim is definitely doing something right.

The 28-year-old made career-high starts at catcher (previous 102 in 2022), which was tied for the most in the AL with Oakland’s Shea Langeliers. Heim’s 124 total games at catcher in ‘23 is 18th among catchers in Rangers history behind nine seasons of Jim Sundberg, six of Rodriguez and one each from Paul Casanova and Mike Brumley.

The first-time All-Star slashed .258/.317/.438 in the regular season while becoming just the 4th Texas catcher selected to the Midsummer Classic, joining Sundberg (1974, 1978), Rodriguez (1992-2001) and Mike Napoli (2012).

He recorded career highs in homers (18), RBIs (95), doubles (28), runs (61), hits (118), fWAR (4.1) and bWAR (2.9). His 95 RBIs were the second most ever by a Texas catcher in a single season to only Rodríguez's 113 in 1999.

So yeah, Heim is doing something right.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth in him,” said Rangers catchers coordinator Bobby Wilson. “It's hard to play at this level. It's even harder to do it every day. It's been a special year for him. He should, in my opinion, be the Gold Glove winner as well. We talk about what he's done offensively, but what he's done defensively has been pretty special as well. Everything that we've asked him to do, he's done it.

“It's very hard to develop catchers. It's very hard. [Rangers manager Bruce] Bochy had Buster [Posey]. Buster is a unicorn. He figured it out quick. For most guys it takes a few years to get that figured out. Jonah’s learning curve has been expedited to make sure he's in the right spot. I’m obviously super proud of him.”

Coming into the 2023 season, one of Heim’s main objectives was being able to get his body in shape to play every day. Last year, he opened the season as the backup catcher, and was almost thrown off guard when Mitch Garver got hurt, which threw Heim into an every-day role he wasn’t entirely prepared for physically.

He did exactly that. He worked on his recovery, got himself in the right place to help his team as much as possible. It concluded with Heim catching the final 13 games of the regular season, with only one team off day in between.

“He was a horse for us,” Bochy, a former catcher, said. “But that's not something that hasn't been done. When you look at the other catchers that were in the same situation, they were out there every day, too. It just goes with the territory when you're in the race to win your division. But I thought he handled it well."

And Heim joked that he doesn’t even feel tired at all.

“I feel great,” Heim said. “I had three weeks off [left wrist tendon strain], not by choice, but got the body right. And adrenaline is a powerful drug, so I’m feeling great and ready to get after it.”

Heim’s consistency behind the plate has also helped the pitching staff in a way. Both the starters and relievers know, almost every day, who they are throwing to and what to expect.

Heim said it all starts in the pregame meetings with Wilson, the catchers, the pitchers and pitching coach Mike Maddux.

From the pure data to the communication everybody on the pitching and catching staff has cultivated a type of trust that’s hard to come by in the era of platoons behind the plate.

“It's hard to remember when he had a day off,” said Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi. “That consistency from a catcher, it's very hard to come by, especially what he's able to do at the plate. Quality of at-bats that he's been able to have and his ability to be able to drive the runs in and work the at-bats. Again, for him, on my side of things, just being able to block guys. He controls the running game really well. He's got a cannon back there behind the plate.

“He's going to be big for us during this stretch, and the game calling, too. Everything with Maddux and Bobby preparing him, getting him ready for the games and just him being able to listen and make adjustments as we go along, helps that a lot.”

There are a lot of reasons that the Rangers have been as successful as they have been this season. But it’s hard to deny that Heim -- with what he’s able to do on both sides of the field -- has been one of the driving factors of that.

“I'm just really proud of him,” Bochy said. “He came to go every day. I got him off the field a couple times when things went awry with the game. But no, I thought he did a good job of being able to manage the workload that we threw at him.”