It’s very rare in these 2022 fantasy baseball player spotlight profiles that we cannot say to add this particular player with complete confidence. That’ll happen a lot with the catcher position in fantasy baseball. This is a player that isn’t exactly shooting up the fantasy baseball rankings. Nor is he necessarily a name that frequents the MLB Lineups page on a regular basis. He is a player that is available on the fantasy baseball waiver wire for most leagues. In fact he’s even on an offense that ranks in the bottom 12 teams across Major League Baseball in terms of production. Around this time of year we’ve seen a large enough sample size to know who we can keep on our fantasy baseball teams and who we can cast out to the free agent pool. While I’m not fully convinced that Jonah Heim is the kind of player we can rely on for a full season, there are some things he’s doing that stand out and make him an interesting player to monitor.

 

For starters, the sample size with Heim is still far too small. As of right now he only has 46 plate appearances but he entered Sunday slashing .353/.476/.676 and yes, that 1.152 OPS ranked in the top five among qualified hitters. He has just 13 hits, six of which are extra base hits (three home runs), ten runs, and ten RBI. 

Heim isn’t necessarily old, but he does have a “journeyman” aspect to his player profile. He turns 27 at the end of June and was drafted straight out of high school back in 2013. He didn’t make his MLB debut until 2020 and spent the first five years of his big league career playing either A-ball or at high-A. It was a slow burn in his development and he bounced around the Orioles, Rays, and Athletics organizations before settling in with the Rangers. And even then he didn’t really see significant playing time in the majors until last year where he slashed .196/.239/.458 so obviously he wasn’t on anybody’s preseason rankings, nor was he being drafted in fantasy baseball mock drafts.

It’s pretty clear that he’ll regress from the hot start he’s gotten off to. The playing time of late doesn’t look great, but the Rangers did have two games postponed against the Yankees and these happened after Heim missed time on paternity leave. But he did have that “new dad” narrative upon his return.

Heim has some flaws in his game, however. For starts, he’s pretty slow. He did swipe three bags last year, but overall his speed can only be measured with a sun dial. That may be a little harsh, but he also doesn’t tout the greatest plate discipline in the world either. Last year he boasted a 20.4% strikeout rate compared to a 5.3% walk rate. This year it’s been a little different as he’s walked 19% of the time and only struck out at a 9.5% clip. Those numbers will naturally regress as will his .324 ISO, .333 BABIP, and 239 wRC+ (which is hilariously high).

Another concern for Heim is the playing time. On the current MLB depth chart for the Texas Rangers, he’s behind Mitch Garver, and he rightfully should be but for how long? Garver was previewed earlier this year in the Player Spotlight series and he got off to a bit of a sluggish start to the tune of a .189/.282/.311 slash line. But he’s shown flashes of turning it around the last two weeks including a pair of hits in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees. It would take a considerable injury to Garver or a full transition of Garver to DH before Heim will see a significant amount of playing time.

 

Regardless of the obvious red flags in terms of regression and playing time, Heim has slowly seen his rostership increase over the first month of the season. Personally, you should probably be adding Adley Rutschman if you’re looking for a catcher to stash, who is available in almost as many ESPN fantasy baseball leagues as Heim is. Once Rutschman is officially called to the show, his ownership will spike and it’s only a matter of time before that happens. But Heim does have value to the Rangers organization that will allow him to see playing time, just not on a daily basis. For starters, he’s a good defensive catcher and by all accounts he calls a very strong game. Additionally, he has a grade of 98 in terms of framing pitches according to Baseball Savant. Traits like that are enough to keep him on the roster even if it’s not in a role desirable for fantasy baseball.

So while Jonah Heim may not necessarily be considered a “must add” for fantasy purposes in deeper leagues, or even two-catcher formats, he could be worth keeping an eye on. The Rangers have a game scheduled every day for the next two weeks so keep an eye on how much playing time Heim gets and re-assess in a couple weeks if he could be a useful piece. It’s unlikely, but if the power shows up then he’ll pique our interest.

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