Thursday, June 26

Welcome to the Rangers Beat newsletter. Friend of the beat and MLB.com reporter Paige Leckie is filling in on this edition.

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.”

The first phase of All-Star ballot voting, in which fans can select finalists for the starters at each position, ends at 11 a.m. CT on June 26 (Thursday). The finalists for each position will be announced at 5 p.m. that night on MLB Network.

As of Monday, Corey Seager (shortstop) and Joc Pederson (designated hitter) were among the top 10 vote-getters for their respective positions. Only the top two vote-getters at each position (or the top six outfielders) in each league progress to the final round of voting.

Fans can vote here and read the full balloting rules here.

All three of the Rangers’ games in Baltimore are expected to have a first-pitch temperature near 100° -- with Games 1 and 2 both reaching 100° on the dot. It’s just the second time since the start of the 2020 season that Texas has played a game with a triple-digit temperature at first pitch (Sept. 22, 2020, at Arizona).

Here are the hottest temps the Rangers have played in since 2020.
100°: June 24, 2025, at Camden Yards
100°: June 23, 2025, at Camden Yards
100°: Sept. 22, 2020, at Chase Field
95°: Sept. 5, 2021, at Angel Stadium
95°: Aug. 10, 2020, at T-Mobile Park
94°: July 31, 2024, at Busch Stadium

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