Jonah Heim knows that a catcher’s first job is defense. That’s why the Texas Rangers catcher feels so gratified after winning his first Gold Glove in November.
“It means everything,” Heim said. “As a catcher you’re always talking defense, so to get recognized for doing something special defensively it’s everything we’ve worked for.”
Heim said that when he joined the Rangers before the 2021 season that winning a Gold Glove was one of his goals.
Heim’s selection as the American League’s best catcher came during his best offensive season, even though he missed a few weeks with a wrist injury that forced him to designated hitter duties.
But Heim had career-best numbers behind the plate, too. That included a career-high 124 games caught.
He threw out 27.5 percent of the baserunners who tried to steal. The only catcher with a higher rate was the NL Gold Glove winner and Heim’s World Series counterpart Gabriel Moreno for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Heim threw out a career-high 22 runners.
Heim also had 10 catcher-framing runs, which was third-best in baseball. He also led AL catchers in fielding runs above average, according to FanGraphs, with 22.8.
He was the third Rangers catcher to win the award, joining Jim Sundberg and Ivan Rodriguez.
He was also the second straight catcher with Rangers ties to win the award. New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino won the AL Gold Glove in 2022. Trevino and Heim were teammates in 2021.
That means both had the same coach in Rangers catching coordinator Bobby Wilson, who joined the team in 2021.
Heim said the award says as much about him as it does about Wilson.
“It shows the kind of caliber of coach he is — he’s probably one of the best in the game at what he does,” Heim said. “I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Heim was part of a Rangers team that set a franchise record for fewest errors in a season, was tied for baseball’s highest fielding percentage (.990) and featured two other Gold Glove winners in first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and right fielder Adolis García.
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