Rangers Catcher Falls Short of All-Star Game Nod

The leading home-run hitter at catcher in the AL will not be at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

Jonah Heim is having a career season for the Texas Rangers. But it wasn’t enough help him sneak onto the American League All-Star team.

Heim, one of the few Rangers leading a major AL statistical category at his position, will get some rest during the All-Star Break as he’s assumed the No. 1 role as catcher after sharing the duties last season with Jose Trevino, and at the start of this season with Mitch Garver.

Garver will have right elbow surgery on Monday.

Heim went 2-for-4 with a run scored against Minnesota on Saturday. He is now hitting .262/.314/.476/.791 with 12 home runs and 31 RBI.

Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk was named the starter and he's having a fine season, hitting .310/.396/.483/.880 with 10 home runs and 33 RBI.

Among the reserves at catcher for the AL is Trevino, who is hitting .255/.303/.438/.741 with seven home runs and 26 RBI.

Heim is the AL’s leading home-run hitter at catcher, and he’s also tied for fourth in RBI at his position. The Rangers have 14 home runs from the catcher position and Heim has 10 of them. He’s already set a career-high for home runs and is one run driven in from tying his career-high of 32.

Heim, who had 10 home runs in 2021, is the second catcher in Rangers history to have a pair of 10 home run seasons before the age of 28. The other is Hall of Fame catcher Iván Rodríguez

Among those 12 home runs was his first career grand slam, which came on April 14 against the Los Angeles Angels, a game that also resulted in a career-high 5 RBI. That was the first grand slam by a Rangers catcher in six seasons.

Heim had one of his most productive road trips of the season last week, during which he hit .323 in Kansas City, New York (against the Mets), and Baltimore. During the say in New York, he hit home runs in back-to-back games. That aligned with an improvement in Heim’s overall batting average from .243 to .262 in the last 18 games.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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