This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. Friend of the beat and MLB.com reporter Paige Leckie is filling in on this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- As a manager, Bruce Bochy doesn’t believe in pitcher-catcher matchups or in his pitchers having a personal catcher.
So when the Rangers signed Kyle Higashioka to a two-year contract in December, it meant not just one, but two veteran backstops -- two reliable presences behind the plate to handle Texas’ mix of veteran and rookie arms.
Higashioka, in his ninth big league year, and Jonah Heim (sixth year) are as in sync as a pair of catchers can be. Their time behind the plate is fairly evenly split. They’re both active in prep and true students of the game.
“They complement each other really well,” Bochy said. “Both veterans. Have worked well together as far as game planning to help the staff. You know, they’re guys I think that work with each other well, as far as one guy catches, he passes on information, those things. As far as matchups with pitchers, I don't worry about matchups with our pitchers as much, and I really don't worry about that as much. I just -- Higgy’s allowed me to keep Jonah a lot fresher and keep them both playing with the number of games that we have.”
The backstop duo agrees.
“[We’re] pretty similar,” Heim said. “We're both pretty quiet, but we like to mess around, so we gel well together, we can bounce ideas off one another. And, yeah, I think it's a good pairing.”
Having two similar catchers, both in their catching style and in their approach to managing their pitcher, is vital to success both for the team and for the individual pitchers.
In his first full big league season, Kumar Rocker leans on the pair as key resources for developing his stuff in the Majors. One of the big things he’s learned? How to approach being behind in the count.
“[What] things to lean on, things to go to, things to kind of have ready for hitters,” Rocker said, “rather than, like, warming a pitch up or kind of going into it cold, you kind of -- you need your offspeeds early.”
Higashioka and Heim lean on each other, too. They both have a very hands-on approach to the staff, which lends well to collaboration.
“For us specifically, we do a good job of just bouncing ideas off each other,” Higashioka said, “making sure we’re on the same page with our pitchers and the other hitters, and just making sure that no matter who’s behind the plate, that our pitchers have somebody they feel confident [with].”
It’s a bit of a different situation from when Higashioka was first coming up, when he was the fresh backstop going every third day or so for the Yankees behind Gary Sánchez, who was in his second big league season, and veteran Austin Romine. The same is true of Heim, who came up while Jose Trevino was still with the Rangers and was more of a primary backstop -- though the pair did split time behind the plate evenly.
There is a bit of a difference between then and now, though, and one that Higashioka appreciates.
“It’s not really the same situation with me and Jonah, because Jonah is a fantastic catcher and he’s already got plenty of years under his belt,” Higashioka said. “But I mean, just being a veteran player in general, it’s kind of cool to just be able to try to do that. I can help the younger guys in any way possible, whether it’s just sharing stuff that I’ve learned or off the field stuff or whatever, I just try to help.”
At the end of the day, though, the pair has one goal: Do whatever they can to help their pitchers succeed and help the team win.
“We both know what it takes to win and to be prepared,” Heim said. “So it's all [so] we can be as prepared and try to know these hitters and try to know how to get them out and try to work with pitchers. We’ve both been around long enough to know what it takes. So that definitely helps a lot.”