Texas Rangers Catcher Jonah Heim Ready for Next Step Forward

Jonah Heim will be in Oakland for the Texas Rangers' road trip and he'll take another small step in his recovery from an injured wrist.

Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim played catch for the first time on Saturday at Globe Life Field. The verdict?

“He felt great,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Sunday. “He said he couldn’t feel anything.”

Considering the session could have been painful, that’s welcome news for the catcher, who actually caught baseballs for the first time since he suffered a left wrist tendon strain on July 27 in Houston.

Heim had not caught a baseball before Saturday. He had thrown the baseball, but someone else caught the ball for him and handed it to him. He also ran bases to keep up conditioning.

For Heim to play a position of any kind this season, he has to be able to catch the baseball. On Sunday, his wrist remained wrapped up in a brace.

So what’s next for Heim? Well, Bochy joked that maybe it was time for Heim to catch some tosses from reliever Aroldis Chapman. But when the Rangers start their three-game series in Oakland, Heim is likely to start ramping up slowly toward other baseball activities.

“I think when we get to Oakland he’ll start taking some dry swings,” Bochy said. “We’ll get that going and then meanwhile it’s mainly keeping his legs in shape and strong.”

Heim has been one of the best catchers in baseball this season. Before the injury he slashed .280/.337/.479/.816 with 14 home runs and 70 RBI. The average and RBI are single-season highs and helped Heim earn a spot in the All-Star Game starting lineup for the American League.

Rangers general manager Chris Young recently expressed optimism that Heim could play through the injury based on pain tolerance. That could include Heim, a switch hitter, batting exclusively from the left side of the plate.

Whether that’s actually realistic won’t be determine for at least two more weeks.

The Rangers are set at catcher in terms of depth. Mitch Garver and Sam Huff are sharing starts behind the plate. The Rangers acquired Austin Hedges at the trade deadline from Pittsburgh as insurance. He’s a sub-.200 hitter, but an elite defender and pitch framer. The Rangers also have Kevin Plawecki in the minors, who played at the MLB level last season.

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