Atlanta's Collection of Former A's Continues

Obsessed much?

Sep 14, 2020; Seattle, Washington, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher Jonah Heim (37) hits an RBI-single against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The last time the A's made the postseason, Sean Murphy was their starting catcher. In the years since, he has been traded to the Atlanta Braves in a deal that has not worked out well for the Athletics. In fact, it's worked out so poorly for the A's that Atlanta now has three members of that trade on the roster or in their system, while the A's have zero.

Atlanta has also made a habit of collecting former A's in recent years, with Murphy and Matt Olson acquired via trade, and they have also added Jorge Mateo, Jurickson Profar, Grant Holmes and Joel Payamps to the mix for 2026. Oh, and their manager Walt Weiss won the American League Rookie of the Year in 1988 with the A's.

On Tuesday morning, they also added Jonah Heim, who was Murphy's backup for part of the 2020 campaign. According to Mark Bowman, Atlanta has signed Heim to a one-year MLB deal worth $1.25 million. Bowman is also unsure whether Heim will have a home with the Braves once Murphy is back from his hip surgery, but he's not a bad option to have in a pinch.

In 2023, Heim was the starting catcher for the Texas Rangers, and he hit .258 with a .317 OBP and a 106 OPS+, wrapping up a 3.1 bWAR campaign. The past two seasons have been more pedestrian at the dish, finishing with an OPS+ of 75 in 2024 and 77 this past season.

With the A's in 2020, Heim made it into 13 games and certainly passed the eye test, though his statistics weren't anything to write home about. He ended up going 8-for-38 (.211) and held a .268 OBP, striking out just three times in 41 plate appearances.

Following the season, Marcus Semien was a free agent and the A's decided to let him walk, despite having the core of the club that had just won a postseason series for the first time since 2006 still very much intact. With Semien gone, the A's needed to find someone to play shortstop for them, but they didn't want to spend too much to make it happen.

The path they decided to go down was to make a trade with the Rangers, acquiring veteran Elvis Andrus and plenty of money to offset some of his contract. He had two years of control and was owed $28.5 million. The Rangers paid that down, sending over $13.5 million, making the A's only have to pay $15 million over two seasons.

In that deal, the A's also traded Heim, to help the Rangers throw in some money, and Khris Davis, who was owed $16.75 million in the final year of his deal. So the A's operating like that, not the way they are projecting now with four extensions on the books, is how Heim ended up in Texas and with a World Series ring.

That experience can still be valuable to the Braves in 2026. Now they're just hoping for more of the 2023 version than the one that he's shown the past two seasons.