Will 2023 be the breakout year for Jonah Heim?

The best position on the baseball field is catcher. You can’t change my mind. From eight years old to the ripe old age of 32 I was behind the plate and when I finished it left me with all the damage that you will have guessed: bad knees, creaking back, enough knocks and bumps to last ten lifetimes. God how I miss it!

I never personally rose to the heights of the big leagues, spending some time in a now-defunct Division III program before heading to Europe. I played with and against a few catchers who were clearly a cut above the rest of us, and have spent the great part of my life stupefied at how little the position is understood in the baseball world.

Most of the great ones stand out for their compact efficiency of movement, their complete control of the strike zone and effortless command of their “office”.

So with that all in mind, I would like to make a controversial statement. Jonah Heim may just be the best catcher in the major leagues today.

JT Realmuto is generally seen around the MLB media as the man who occupies that spot. Will Smith or Willson Contreras may get mentioned as also-rans, but allow me to lay out the case for Heim.

The case for Jonah Heim

Catching is one of the worst-coached and least understood positions on the field. Traditionally seen as little more than a backstop, if any catcher rose above that station it was seen as a result of some kind of mystical alchemy, impossible to understand, where base material was turned to gold.

The great ones, all of the names on that list earlier plus many others throughout history, have managed to put up impressive offensive numbers while simply turning off opposing base running production, much as you turn off a faucet.

The rule changes in 2023 will skew the statistics somewhat as base stealing has already shown a marked increase. It is worth remembering however that all of this additional activity on the bases as a result of the rules hamstringing the pitcher.

Yes, I know that statement reveals my bias as a former catcher, but it is true and worth repeating, particularly for the statistical-minded reader who may not understand the nuance of the game. Bases are stolen off the pitcher, not the catcher.

Jonah Heim has as ferocious an arm as you could ever hope for behind the plate. He has a cannon on his right shoulder and can catch anyone on any base. Big deal, you say. So can all professional catchers. True enough.

But there is something that Heim possesses that is one of those intangibles that quantitative systems hate to talk about. The best way to describe it is to say that for much of the game, you don’t even know that he is behind the plate.

Heim is not afraid to back-pick to first, but he rarely feels that he has to. He is economic in his movement, setting up in the right spot and not noticeably trying to frame bad pitches. He is quiet and respectful with the umpires, you will never see him argue or show any displeasure at all, much less getting tossed from a game.

On the offensive side of the sheet, Heim is one of the few elite-level MLB catchers who can hit from the left side. And only Adley Rutschman can challenge Heim for overall production on from either side.

Speaking of stats, let’s get that out of the way. Over the 2022 season Heim had 450 plate appearances, slashing .227/.298/.399 with 16 HR and 48 RBIs. So far in 2023, he has hit four home runs and driven in 17 RBIs over 59 plate appearances, spearheading a resurgent Texas Rangers team who are sitting a game and a half in front of Houston at the top of the AL West.

Best Battery in Baseball?

While Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi have largely delivered on their promise for the Rangers, it is the battery of Jonah Heim and Martin Perez that is emerging as one of the best in baseball today. They have combined for 27.2 innings pitched in the first month of the season and have given up 10 runs on 32 hits. While Perez has been red hot, the quiet member of that pairing has been able to work the best out of his pitchers, up and down the rotation, and Heim gets precious little credit for that.

Languishing in Arlington

Since the days of Pudge Rodriguez, catchers, and in fact great players in general, have been seen to be simply languishing away in Texas. The Yankees have for many years treated Arlington as a Triple-A-plus farm system location, creaming off the best of the Rangers crop. While things seem to be changing under Bruce Bochy, the question of whether the Rangers ownership has the stomach for the long slog toward a potential championship remains to be seen.