By IAN WILSON
It was a playoff run that was pure magic.
And that made Tyler Heineman, the backup catcher with the Toronto Blue Jays, uniquely qualified to be a part of it all.
On the field, the pitch framer from Los Angeles, California formed an effective hitting tandem with starting catcher Alejandro Kirk. Heineman batted .289 with a .361 on-base percentage in his 61 regular season games with the Blue Jays in 2025. The eighth-round pick of the Houston Astros in the 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft also produced 25 runs, 20 runs batted in (RBI), eight doubles and three home runs in his 174 plate appearances.
Off the field, Heineman could be found leaving teammates and fans speechless with his card tricks and performances as a magician.
It was a hobby he picked up while traveling to and from games in the minor leagues. While other teammates were binge-watching TV shows or playing card games, Heineman was working on his sleight of hand.
“I had a lot of time on buses in my minor-league journey because we bus everywhere,” said Heineman, who has played in 743 minor-league contests over the course of his baseball career.
Heineman, who was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays from the Boston Red Sox in mid-September of 2024, recalled showing off his magic during a trip to the Dominican Republic in 2015.
“We had a rain delay and I knew a very simple counting card trick, one that your uncle probably taught you a long time ago and it was cool in the moment but you forgot about it,” said Heineman during an interview with Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast.
“The Latin guys are usually a pretty animated crowd, in general … they give a very good reaction, so it was a very simple trick and I showed it during a rain delay, got a response that elicited my thought process of, maybe I should learn a couple more simple card tricks. So, I went back to my hotel room that day and hopped on YouTube and looked up some beginner card magic and tried practicing and it kind of just grew from there.”
He admits to having some go-to tricks, depending on his audience.
“I have three or four, but it depends on the group or the setting I’m in,” said Heineman.
“If I have a table and people are around watching, there’s a trick that I like to do. If I’m walking up to people and I’m just in a street crowd, there’s another trick I like to do. I think the setting really matters in terms of what trick I want to do.”
Heineman avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal with the Blue Jays in early January, meaning he’ll continue to work his baseball brand of magic for the team during the 2026 MLB season.
In reflecting on the captivating 2025 postseason run of the Blue Jays, which saw the team narrowly lose to the the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series, Heineman revealed what was so special about the American League champions.
“I’ve been asked this question a lot and I’ve been able to formulate a pretty darn good answer. The answer for me is actually two or three answers. Yes, I think there’s a couple moments during the season that brought us together, but I think also having a culture like we had in the clubhouse really comes down to performing and winning … for whatever reason, we had a flare for the dramatic and we really liked to come from behind and win a lot of games from behind,” Heineman explained to podcast host Joe McFarland.
The UCLA alum pointed to a May 28th game in Arlington that saw Bo Bichette smack a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the ninth inning. The result was a 2-0 win for the Jays that turned Bichette’s season around and helped galvanize the group.
“We were just hovering around .500 and that was one of the first moments that we were like, ‘Oh, we can win at any point of the game – we can find ways to win.’ From then on, we’d find a way in the seventh or eighth inning to scratch and claw and come back and win some games. It ends up just becoming that theme and we kind of created steam,” recalled Heineman.
“You basically are like, we are going to win this game, it’s just a matter of when … it just kept rewarding us with success and we all started feeling it.”
Heineman credited players like Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer, George Springer, Myles Straw and Ernie Clement with ensuring that the pitchers and position players were all rowing in the same direction.
“The collective group of guys did a really good job of being able to integrate pitchers and position players together,” he said.
“They found a way to make it so it was a team of 26 players really enjoying being with each other, instead of 13 pitchers and 13 position players.”
Heineman also tipped his cap to the crowds at Rogers Centre in Toronto for getting the team geared up for a postseason push.
“It kind of helped to get us into playoff mode before the playoffs started, because the Rogers Centre was packed out and the games were high intensity games, but also having more fans in the stands allows you to basically feel like it’s a playoff atmosphere without it being a playoff atmosphere. When it came time for playoffs, we had an advantage,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that teams that have great fan bases are perennially pretty good and usually make deep runs. I think a lot of it has to do with the fans just preparing players for those situations.”
The backstop will have a chance to say thanks to Blue Jays boosters in Saskatchewan next month, when he and Sportsnet personality Jamie Campbell attend dinner events in Weyburn and Swift Current.
“We’re not just playing a game of baseball for us, for our careers, we’re representing an entire country and there’s a lot of deeper meaning to that on an interpersonal relationship level,” said Heineman.
“More than anything, this year has shown how much support the whole country has for the Blue Jays and the fact we made a deep run further emphasized just how much buzz Blue Jays baseball can give throughout Canada … I’m excited to see other parts of Canada, just to see how crazy invested fans are, just like they are in Toronto.”
Added Heineman: “I’m just really excited to meet fans and interact with fans. It’s one of my favourite things to do.”
Heineman and Campbell will attend the Weyburn Beavers fundraising dinner on Feb. 6th, followed by the Swift Current 57’s event on Feb. 7th.
Tales of Baseball 