Jonah Heim

[Billy F-Face3]

Imagine if the Orioles had kept Jonah Heim. We would have the best catching duo in all of baseball.

Why did we get rid of him anyway? I mean I know we had Adley upcoming, but still, we could have used him through all of that.

[Rbiggs2525]

He had no involvement with Adley. We traded him in 2016 to get back Steve Pearce. Pearce ended up hitting like 200 and leaving us the following offseason. Goes to show you the desperation at the deadline most of the time backfires.

[Can_of_corn]

8 minutes ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Imagine if the Orioles had kept Jonah Heim. We would have the best catching duo in all of baseball.

Why did we get rid of him anyway? I mean I know we had Adley upcoming, but still, we could have used him through all of that.

My guess is Buck requested Pearce back.

While I disliked the trade at the this is a top .1% outcome for Heim.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

Considering the Rangers are the 3rd organization he's been in since the trade and it still took him 3 years since the trade to make the majors (in the COVID season too), not sure it was too obvious he was going to post a breakout season like he has.

Also...If you want to know "short sighted," the Orioles traded Heim while feeling comfortable with Yermin Mercedes as his replacement in the catching department...

[ShoelesJoe]

In 2014 Heim put up a .665 OPS in Rookie Ball. That was the highest OPS he ever put up in any one season as an Oriole minor leaguer. I think it's fairly obvious why we traded him away. 

[ChosenOne21]

There's "It didn't work out" and "Really should have known better" when it comes to trades, and Heim was 100% "It didn't work out." It took him, what, six years and four organizations after we traded him to be anything? Like Corn said, there was like a .1% chance of him being a good starting MLB catcher. If I recall, the book on Heim said he had a chance to be a good backup catcher if he could hit a little more.

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

He had no involvement with Adley. We traded him in 2016 to get back Steve Pearce. Pearce ended up hitting like 200 and leaving us the following offseason. Goes to show you the desperation at the deadline most of the time backfires.

Heim wasn’t very highly regarded at the time.  He was a 21 year old with a .643 OPS in the Carolina League.  Meanwhile Chance Sisco, chosen in the same draft, had an .828 OPS in AA.  Austin Wynns, also chosen in that draft, also was ahead of him on the depth chart (though older). Alex Murphy, also drafted that year, was a level below Heim but hitting much better.   In short, Heim seemed expendable at the time.  

It’s not like Heim was an instant success once he was traded, either.  He hit worse for Tampa’s A+ affiliate that year than he had for ours.  He got demoted back to low A the next year for most of the season before earning a promotion back to high A, got traded to Oakland after 2017, then spent most of 2018 still in high A.  It took him until 2020 to make the majors at age 25 and then, after posting a .479 OPS in 13 games, he got traded to the Rangers.  There, he had a .598 OPS his first season, improved to .697 in 2022, and then .755 this year.   In short, it took him a really long time to develop, but he never stopped working and was able to improve over a long period of time.  And, to be fair, he always had good defensive chops.   So, kudos to him for his perseverance. 

As to Pearce, we got a little unlucky that time.   He had a .908 OPS when we traded for him.  He got hurt about a week after the trade, missed 5 games, and was never completely healthy the rest of the year.  His BA was low but he managed a respectable .729 OPS for us.  He had a .757 and .890 OPS the next two years, and was a good cog in Boston’s 2018 championship team.  

Anyway, I’ll be rooting for the DBacks tonight so we can have a Christian Walker - Jonah Heim World Series.    Those two and Li’l Yaz are three guys who’ve shown that sometimes talent just takes a while to come out.  

[Tony-OH]

Heim was a cold weather high school kid with a raw stick who was known for his defensive work. As Frobby pointed out, both Sisco and Wynns were ahead of him in the minor league "depth chart" for catching prospects 

He's a nice story as a player who had to grind in order to eventually develop into a good major league hitter. His defensive abilities at catcher and the ability to switch hit allowed him to keep getting chances when others would not.

I clearly remember when he was selected and then bombed pretty hard offensively in his first taste of pro ball, that I was reminded that he was a "cold weather kid, who's bat will take awhile to come around." 

Clearly that was a true statement. Good on him, but I can't fault the Orioles at the time for moving him and even if they didn't, maybe he doesn't develop the same way? 

It is a good reminder though when you get cold weather kids out of high school that you are willing to keep running them out there to see if they get it eventually. Most will not though just like most warm weather kids won't make it and there's only so much playing time available. Sometimes guys just needs changes of scenery to keep getting playing time until it clicks. 

 

[Orioles0615]

9 hours ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

Considering the Rangers are the 3rd organization he's been in since the trade and it still took him 3 years since the trade to make the majors (in the COVID season too), not sure it was too obvious he was going to post a breakout season like he has.

Also...If you want to know "short sighted," the Orioles traded Heim while feeling comfortable with Yermin Mercedes as his replacement in the catching department...

Hey Mercedes was the talk of baseball for like 3 weeks some odd years ago

Edited October 24, 2023 by Orioles0615

[Sports Guy]

I’m good with Adley and Basallo

[ledzepp8]

10 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Imagine if the Orioles had kept Jonah Heim. We would have the best catching duo in all of baseball.

Why did we get rid of him anyway? I mean I know we had Adley upcoming, but still, we could have used him through all of that.

Jonah Heim hit like 216 in the Orioles system. He went to two other teams before the Rangers. Heim's decent enough but his career season was really a tale of two halves. Adley should have started over him the AS game and had the better season overall. 

[Going Underground]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Heim wasn’t very highly regarded at the time.  He was a 21 year old with a .643 OPS in the Carolina League.  Meanwhile Chance Sisco, chosen in the same draft, had an .828 OPS in AA.  Austin Wynns, also chosen in that draft, also was ahead of him on the depth chart (though older). Alex Murphy, also drafted that year, was a level below Heim but hitting much better.   In short, Heim seemed expendable at the time.  

It’s not like Heim was an instant success once he was traded, either.  He hit worse for Tampa’s A+ affiliate that year than he had for ours.  He got demoted back to low A the next year for most of the season before earning a promotion back to high A, got traded to Oakland after 2017, then spent most of 2018 still in high A.  It took him until 2020 to make the majors at age 25 and then, after posting a .479 OPS in 13 games, he got traded to the Rangers.  There, he had a .598 OPS his first season, improved to .697 in 2022, and then .755 this year.   In short, it took him a really long time to develop, but he never stopped working and was able to improve over a long period of time.  And, to be fair, he always had good defensive chops.   So, kudos to him for his perseverance. 

As to Pearce, we got a little unlucky that time.   He had a .908 OPS when we traded for him.  He got hurt about a week after the trade, missed 5 games, and was never completely healthy the rest of the year.  His BA was low but he managed a respectable .729 OPS for us.  He had a .757 and .890 OPS the next two years, and was a good cog in Boston’s 2018 championship team.  

Anyway, I’ll be rooting for the DBacks tonight so we can have a Christian Walker - Jonah Heim World Series.    Those two and Li’l Yaz are three guys who’ve shown that sometimes talent just takes a while to come out.  

Is there a Christian Walker thread yet? Orioles waived him and took him like 6 years to become decent. Didn't realize he got in a few games for the Orioles, two years in a row. 

 

[Moose Milligan]

I think there are some fair critiques when a player leaves a team and goes on to immediate success somewhere else.  Jake Arrieta literally stepped off the plane in Chicago and turned into a different guy overnight.  If you don't believe me, go to his baseball reference page and see what his stats were for the Orioles and then for the Cubs in 2013.  That is an indictment on the Orioles staff at the time and their inability to coach a guy up.

As noted, we traded Heim to Tampa to bring Steve Pearce back.  Then he got traded to Oakland as a PTBNL, then traded to the Rangers.

Glad to see the guy having success but this is far from an indictment on the Orioles and their developmental system from that era.  

As an aside, I do believe every fanbase thinks they're alone when it comes to their team trading guys and having their guys go on to succeed elsewhere.  Like, I'm sure the Cardinals fans right now are bemoaning Adolis Garcia and thinking that only a team like the Cardinals trades guys away only to have them succeed somewhere else.  

[AdamK]

Only thing I recall about Heim when he was with us was his pop-time. May have been a new metric, but pop-time seemed to be that time's sweeper.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, AdamK said:

Only thing I recall about Heim when he was with us was his pop-time. May have been a new metric, but pop-time seemed to be that time's sweeper.

That might have been O's specific since Buck was so worried about stolen bases.