The Cardinals announced they’ve signed catcher Tyler Heineman to a minor-league contract. He’ll receive an invitation to spring training.
Heineman, 29, has seen sparse major league action over the past two seasons with the Marlins and Giants. In 62 MLB plate appearances, he owns a .208/.288/.302 line. The switch-hitter boasts a much stronger .287/.353/.430 slash over parts of five seasons in Triple-A.
The St. Louis organization is facing some uncertainty behind the plate for the first time in recent memory. Franchise icon Yadier Molina is on the open market, where he’s seeing rather robust interest. Also hitting free agency is Matt Wieters, leaving Andrew Knizner as the only catcher currently on the 40-man roster. The addition of a quality depth piece on a minor-league arrangement certainly doesn’t prohibit the Cardinals from brining Molina back. If the 38-year-old were to wind up elsewhere, St. Louis would likely bring in additional names from outside the organization to work with Knizner.
Only have one comment about him: He had the most catcher interferences that I’ve ever seen from a catcher in a span of time from his short time in SF, and he only played like 20 games…
Same! I’ve never seen so many lol
“Posey had three catcher’s interferences the past 11 seasons. Heineman had three in less than two weeks.” -sfchronicle
He is a bat first catcher who has always hit well in the minor leagues, he started off hot with the giants and then cooled down a lot.
I would like to see Yadi and Wieters return to the Cardinals. Also, Wainwright should be back.
I don’t thinkl both will go their maybe pick 1 id you had too chose. ?
Wieters won’t be back, unless Molina doesn’t come back, but that still doesn’t mean Winters comes back. Heineman was signed to be the AAA C, saying there is minor leagues and the world is still spinning, probably with Julio Rodriguez and to give them someone with major league experience behind Knizner and Molina or whomever they sign to play with Knizner.
Ask yourselves about that I don’t want to
I say sign Molina, waino, and joc Pederson and call it an off-season.
Wieters has been terrible. Even in terms of back up catchers. Never wanna see him again. Below average defense and below average offense, maybe the reasons why the Cardinals were the only ones who showed interest in him the previous years
Tyler Heineman? I’d rather have had Jeff Hanneman but unfortunately he passed away in 2013.
I’d like to have Jaime Heineman…he could build cool stuff
Honestly having Knizner as the main catcher then heinaeman as a back up would be nice
I think if the Cardinals do anything this winter it will be done thru trades and not FA signings. It’s hard enough for the Cardinals brass to remember the combination to the safe in a normal season, let alone a crazy covid plagued season
I think we should have an active off season wherever it comes to get a bat but our owner sucks
I suspect you may be right. The team most likely brings Yadi and Waino back and will be all bit done in free agency. They will use some surplus pitching as the key to finding another bat on the trade market. Trading might be interesting this winter bc it will possibly harken back to the Walt Jocketty era where more expensive players may not cost as much in trade bc teams will be looking to shred payroll after the 2020 Covid season. Will be interested to see the end result of this offseason
trade the best on the farm so they can be stars on another team
Actually we should do a minor rebuild nothing as serious as marlins or tigers but something minor to be built better and keep our prospects
Typical signing by John Mozeliak. .208 hitter. Guess that’s an impact hitter compared to the current Matt Carpenter.
Actually he was probably nothing more than AAA insurance. Knizner is the only catcher currently under contract to appear in a AAA game. Rodriguez will be moving up from Springfield but it doesnt hurt to have an experienced guy to help split the time. I’d be surprised if Heinman ever sees a 40 man roster spot
So this is the grand plan for the Cardinals’ off-season….
I had him signing with DET. I’m 0-2.
All cards fans should boycott St Louis until the they get off there skimpy ass and sign a big name .
who wants to go where a crappy front office works.
As a mariners fan I fully expect Tom Murphy to be dealt to the Cardinals at the deadline, if he is having a decent year. We have torrens, raleigh, and we claimed Brian okeefe in rule 5 last year. He is still only 29 and would be a great pickup by the Cardinals.
deadline isn’t going to help when they need help at start of preseason
Well I can see the mariners signing mike Zunino to help with our young catchers and try to help us, and we could trade Tom Murphy to St. Louis I could see that.
I see many of the posters here are down on Heineman. I wish SF had held on to him. The guy’s got a great arm and—yes—he had some catcher interference calls, but he’s a good defensive catcher and a switch hitter. He can even run pretty well for a catcher. Give him a few more ABs and he’ll be a fine backup catcher.
That’s what I’m saying it’s not looking good for Yadi and weiters to come back now