Angels Acquire Tyler Heineman

The Angels announced the acquisition of catcher Tyler Heineman from the Blue Jays. Toronto, who had designated him for assignment over the weekend, receive cash considerations.

The Halos opened a spot on the 40-man roster when they designated Trey Mancini for assignment this afternoon. They therefore didn’t need to announce a corresponding move tonight, but they will need to open an active roster spot once Heineman joins the club for their weekend series in West Sacramento.

Heineman will probably bump Logan Porter back to Triple-A. The Halos have operated with a Logan O’Hoppe/Porter tandem for the past week. They’ve needed to go well into the catching depth chart with Travis d’Arnaud out due to plantar fasciitis and Sebastián Rivero undergoing hamate surgery. O’Hoppe’s bat has picked up this month after a very slow start, while Porter has a full slate of minor league options and can go back to Triple-A.

The 34-year-old Heineman has spent the past year and a half in Toronto. He had a career-best .289/.361/.416 showing over 64 games last year. Heineman has been a light-hitting depth catcher for the majority of his career and owns a .154 average with one homer in 87 plate appearances this season. He got some run while Alejandro Kirk was out with a broken thumb. Brandon Valenzuela outplayed him and remained on Toronto’s MLB roster as the backup when Kirk returned.

Heineman is out of minor league options and had to get through waivers for the Jays to send him to Triple-A. The Angels jumped the waiver line with the trade, taking on the remainder of his $1.2375MM arbitration salary in the process. Heineman is an excellent receiving catcher with a good arm, so he’ll improve the team defense behind the dish. He’ll remain eligible for arbitration for another two seasons if he holds his MLB job.