Jonah Heim may be reaching the end of the line as a switch-hitter.
The Athletics catcher has started taking his at-bats from the right side only over the past two days against the Seattle Mariners, including Friday’s series opener in West Sacramento and again on Saturday against right-hander Bryan Woo. On Friday, it was Heim’s first right-handed plate appearance against a righty this season. By Saturday, he was doing it across the board.
For a player whose season has already been shaped by injuries around him and a shifting role, the move stands out. Heim was originally brought in to catch until Shea Langeliers returned from the paternity list earlier this summer, then shifted into the backup role.
When Langeliers was later sidelined by a knee injury, Heim moved into the everyday catching job. He had only picked up the DH role because he was swinging it well on days when Langeliers was out.
Now that Langeliers is back in the lineup as the team’s DH, Heim appears to be making a change of his own.
The numbers explain why.
Over the last 30 days, Heim is hitting .177, and the split between his two sides at the plate has become impossible to ignore. Against left-handed pitchers, he has posted a .264 average and an .852 OPS. From the left side, though, he’s down at .167 with a .493 OPS.
This isn’t a brand-new conversation, either. Earlier this summer, the idea of Heim dropping switch-hitting was already on the table, though at that point his right-handed numbers were carrying the concern more than his left-handed production.
Even before this season, the conversation had been there for a while. His career line against lefties sits at .257 with a .759 OPS, while he has hit .210 with a .614 OPS against righties.
So whether the decision came from Heim, the Athletics’ coaching staff, or both, the message is clear: something had to change. The hope now is that the last few weeks of the season give Heim a chance to show he can still be a useful bat, which could matter as he heads toward free agency this offseason.
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Luis Severinos future is still unresolved, and the bigger concern is whether the pitching mix is good enough to support a meaningful push at all. Even the core position players were quiet in the defeat, leaving the As with more questions than answers after a game that looked less like a fluke and more like a snapshot of the problems they have been carrying for weeks. [Read more 🡒]