With Langeliers sidelined, keeping Heim for the young pitching staff creates a real trade deadline dilemma for the A's.
With the trade deadline approaching on Monday, the Athletics have few pieces likely to fetch a meaningful return. Mark Leiter Jr. and Shea Langeliers had surgery earlier this week and the challenge of late has been finding big-league-caliber players to fill out the roster.
Trading from this injury-ravaged group would make that task even more difficult.
One position where they're especially thin is at catcher. With Langeliers set to miss some time — perhaps the rest of the season — Jonah Heim is now the club's primary option behind the plate, though he's a free agent at the end of the season.
The next-man-up after Heim would be Brian Serven, a 31-year-old catcher who had 39 big-league games under his belt from 2023-2025. He's played in four games with the A's this season and he has experience behind the plate, but the determining factor for the A's could be whether they trust him enough to guide the A's young pitching staff for the final two months.
This final stretch has turned into a development period for these young arms. The A's have to make sure they're put in the best position for success.
"He has value for us here," A's manager Mark Kotsay said of Heim with the trade deadline approaching. "You always have to assess the value of what you're getting in return when you trade a player. Obviously Jonah's providing that experience. He's a solid guy to have with this staff, especially as young as we are, to help navigate games and continue to teach them."
Kotsay also noted Chad Wallach and Bryan Lavastida, minor league catchers, as the team's Triple-A depth. If Heim were to be traded, one of them would be paired with Serven as the A's catching duo for the stretch run.
Wallach, 34, has big-league time, getting into 156 games in his career, including 65 with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023. He's a career .198 hitter with a 61 wRC+.
Lavastida, 27, appeared in six games with the Cleveland Guardians back in 2022, going 1-for-12 with three walks.
This isn't to say that the A's would be unwilling to trade Heim for the right offer. It would make sense if the A's were able to acquire an established veteran catcher elsewhere. Heim is a former World Series champion and Gold Glove winner with the Texas Rangers and has logged 670 games.
One option for the A's had been Jake Rogers, whom the Detroit Tigers designated for assignment earlier this week. Rogers was then traded to the Baltimore Orioles for right-hander Zane Barnhart.
The return for Heim wouldn't be astronomical for the A's — perhaps a lower-level pitching prospect, or an upper-level pitcher with command issues. Trading Heim would be both about the return in prospects the team would receive, and the impact on the A's pitching staff's development these final two months.
