Tyler Heineman

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Tyler Andrew Heineman

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Biographical Information[edit]

Catcher Tyler Heineman and his brother, Scott Heineman, both made their major league debut in 2019. Tyler played 5 games for the Miami Marlins that season, then moved to the San Francisco Giants in 2020, playing 15 games.

He was originally drafted by the Houston Astros in the 8th round of the 2008 amateur draft out of UCLA. Shortly before the 2017 season, he was purchased by the Milwaukee Brewers, then after the 2018 season signed as a free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Marlins purchased him in June of 2019 and he made his debut in early September. After the 2020 season, he continued to move around, being in the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies organizations before returning to the majors as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays early in the 2022 season. He was supposed to spend the year with the AAA Buffalo Bisons, backing up top prospect Gabriel Moreno, but when starter Danny Jansen was injured after three games, he was called up to act as the major league team's third catcher, behind Alejandro Kirk and Zack Collins. When Jansen returned, he was placed on waivers and was claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 16th. He played 52 games for Pittsburgh, hitting .211 without a homer and 8 RBIs. He was the team's second busiest catcher, after Jason Delay.

In 2023, he started the year with the Pirates, going 1 for 9 in 3 games, then was traded back to Toronto at the end of the month, in return for Vinny Capra. He spent the next month in Buffalo until he was called up to Toronto to back up Kirk when Jansen was injured again. He hit .276 in 19 games with a double and a triple before returning to Buffalo. Following the season, he was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets in December, then purchased by the Boston Red Sox just before the start of spring training. He went 0 for 2 in 2 games for Boston, but spent the bulk of the 2024 season in the minors with the Worcester Red Sox, hitting .252 in 51 games, with 6 homers and 26 RBIs. He caught a break on September 16th when the Blue Jays, unhappy with the lack of hitting of C Brian Serven, picked him up off waivers from Boston and had him spend the final couple of weeks of the season in the majors. He went 1 for 10 in 5 games backing up Alejandro Kirk, and also made the second mound appearance of his career in a mop-up capacity, but that got him a chance to continue his career with a team that liked his defensive work.

In 2025, he won a pitched battle in spring training to be the Jays' main back-up catcher, against two other major league veterans in Christian Bethancourt and Ali Sanchez. In his first appearance of the season, on March 30th, he hit the second homer of his career off Cionel Perez of the Baltimore Orioles. It came at a key venture of the game, as the Jays were only ahead 2-1 in the 7th inning after a strong start by Chris Bassitt. His only previous long ball had come in his fourth career game, back with the Marlins in 2019. On September 19th, he was called to throw some mop=up relief as the Jays were being beaten down by the Kansas City Royals and had seen starting pitcher Max Scherzer being chased before the end of the 1st inning, badly taxing the bullpen. It was his fifth career pitching appearance, all under similar circumstances, but he managed to set a record for most runs allowed by a position player since at least the 1950s as he gave up 10 in an inning and a third before giving way to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who recorded the final two outs in the 8th. The Jays lost that game, 20-1. He hit .289 in 61 games with 3 homers and 20 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 113. However, he was unable to produce in the postseason when he had to get into the game after Kirk was replaced by a pinch-runner, going 0 for 3 in the 18-minning marathon loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series on October 27th. Those were his only three plate appearances of the postseason, so there was a reason why he was rusty at that point.

In 2026, he got to play much more than initially expected in the first couple of months of the season as Kirk was injured after just a week of play. However, he was unable to produce much, batting .154 in 31 games, while rookie Brandon Valenzuela emerged as a much better hitter than expected. Thus, when Kirk returned on June 12th, Tyler was designated for assignment.

He has entertained his clubhouse mates with his magic tricks.

Further Reading[edit]

  • T.R. Sullivan: "A pair of brothers, a pair of MLB journeys", mlb.com, February 2, 2020. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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