How Blue Jays breakouts Heineman, Lauer upped their mental games

DETROIT — Tyler Heineman fished the tablet from his locker and started swiping through page after page of hand-scribbled notes. 

The blowout of the Phillies when he drove in three and ended Jesus Luzardo’s day; the win on a bitterly cold night in Boston when he had two of his team’s five hits off Garrett Crochet; the three-hit day in Minneapolis, including a rally-starting single off Jhoan Duran that eventually came around as the game-winning run. He’s jotted down his thoughts and feelings before and after it all. And he isn’t about to stop now.

Heineman, the Blue Jays back-up catcher who’s spending his first full season in the majors since 2020 and about to take on an expanded role with Alejandro Kirk on the IL, is playing the best baseball of his life at 34. Hitting .330 with an .889 OPS and positive grades across the board of advanced defensive stats, he’s combined with Kirk to form baseball’s second-most valuable catching tandem. 

Granted, Cal Raleigh’s 6.4 fWAR alone is enough to top the combined catcher total of every other team in the league. But Kirk (3.4) and Heineman (2) put the Blue Jays only .8 fWAR behind Raleigh’s Mariners, and more than a full win ahead of the third-place Atlanta Braves. 

After catcher (5.3), third base (2.7) has been Toronto’s second-most productive position in wins above replacement. Not even the value of Toronto’s three outfield spots combined (5.1) or entire starting staff (5) tops the contributions Kirk and Heineman have provided behind the plate. Whichever way you want to build a hierarchy of which position’s been most responsible for Toronto’s surprisingly successful season, you’re starting with the lads in chest guards. 

Now, with his 4.3-fWAR in 2022 serving as proof of concept, it was at least foreseeable that Kirk could provide this kind of production following two middling seasons. But as a player on his 11th MLB organization who’s been designated for assignment four times since 2022, Heineman has far exceeded even aggressive expectations. He’s produced more fWAR in 38 games this year than he had in his 111 career games entering it.

So, what’s allowing him to do this?

“I wish I had the answer for you, honestly,” Heineman says. “I think it’s just embracing who I am. I’ve been chasing my whole career, chasing things that really aren’t me. Chasing exit velocity, chasing bat speed, because I think that’s what everyone wants. I’m just trying to be good with what I have. There’s a cathartic type of deep breath in embracing that and not trying to search for more, if that makes any sense.”

To some it will; to others it won’t. Heineman isn’t even sure it makes sense to himself. He’s still trying to work through all this, too. Recently, when the pair were lockermates for a series in Minneapolis, Ernie Clement asked Heineman similar questions. How cool is it to be having this success? Do you ever sit back and think about how far you’ve come?

Thing is, Heineman’s focus this year has been the opposite. He’s trying to think less about the past, less about the future, and more about the present. It’s part of the mindset overhaul he’s undergone with help from Blue Jays mental performance coach John Lannan and a private mental skills specialist he began working with during the off-season, Brian Cain.

“I’m really trying to buy into being as present as I can on each at-bat and each pitch,” Heineman says. “My entire process, it’s exhausting. But it also doesn’t allow me to future-trip too often. And it keeps me going. It’s a mental checklist I go through, almost like a funnel into a game and then funnel out of it.”

Here’s what that looks like. It starts the minute Heineman wakes up, recording how much sleep he got — seven-and-a-half hours is the goal — along with his heart rate variability and readiness score provided by an Oura ring. 

After making his bed, he calls Dr. Rob Gilbert’s “Success Hotline” — you can call it yourself: (973) 743-4690 — to listen to a daily motivational message recorded by the professor of sports psychology at Montclair State University, who’s been maintaining the hotline for over three decades.

Once he’s at the ballpark, Heineman journals his thoughts and mentally envisions flipping a switch from “Tyler,” the husband and dad, to “Heine,” the ballplayer.  He listens to and repeats positive affirmations while thinking about how he can be successful that day. Even while he’s preparing physically, drilling his blocking or working in the batting cages, he’ll intermittently step out of the box, take a breath, and practice recomposing himself just like he would in a game.

On nights he’s in the lineup, within the hour prior to first pitch, Heineman identifies a one-word focus he can return to throughout the game. “Dialled” is a frequent choice. Next, three keys to keep things simple. Something like: “Read; see it; on time.” Then, he repeats these same three positive affirmations to himself:

“I speak, lead, and compete with complete confidence.”

“I prepare at an elite level. When I prepare my best, I am my best.”

“I’m an elite hitter that competes one pitch at a time.”

Throughout games he’s not playing, Heineman will choose one teammate — typically Nathan Lukes, because their approaches are similar — and take what he calls “mental AB’s” along with him. 

Going into each Lukes plate appearance, he’ll devise a game plan and how he’d execute it. As the pitcher delivers a pitch, Heineman visualizes himself either taking it well or swinging and hitting it hard. Depending on what’s thrown, he’ll think along with Lukes and picture how he’d navigate the battle.

Back at home or in his hotel room following a game, Heineman will meditate and journal again, recording three things he was proud of himself for that day, three things he needs to continue to do, and three things he can improve upon tomorrow. On days he’s in the lineup, he adds baseball-specific ones. What were three wins from today’s game? It could be blocking a pitch, moving a runner, or hitting a ball hard.

Finally, his three gratitudes. “My wife, my daughter, this team.” And his final habit of the day (also his most inconsistent): avoiding screens while trying to fall asleep. He told you it was exhausting.

“It’s very beneficial for somebody like me that has anxiety and also wants to have a mental edge,” he says. “I have a lot of anxiety in general, just normal anxiety. So, it’s a difficult thing for me to do. But as I get closer to the game, doing all these things, writing in my journal, doing mental imagery, hitting all these checklists of what I’m trying to do, saying my positive affirmations — it helps me get through the dead period, the runway to the game.”

Heineman texts Cain every day and has a phone conversation with him once a week. They’ve met up this season in Toronto and Boston. Cain trained under renowned sports psychologist Dr. Ken Ravizza, who consulted for multiple MLB teams and worked closely with scores of major-leaguers — including former Blue Jay Justin Turner — until his death in 2018. Now, Cain’s a go-to mental performance specialist for players across the league, from Corbin Burnes to Bobby Witt Jr.

And Heineman isn’t his only client in the Blue Jays clubhouse (first base coach Mark Budzinski has also been on Cain’s podcast). Eric Lauer, the 30-year-old starter whose own winding MLB path has taken him through five MLB organizations and one in Korea, began working with Cain in 2023 — the connection was forged through Lauer’s agency, which also represented Burnes at the time — when he faced a series of health and performance challenges that temporarily derailed his ascendant career.

That season, as poor performance piled on top of poor performance, compounding the mental stress he had been battling through from spring training on, Lauer’s focus and routines went out the window as he chased a season that was only moving further and further away from him. 

His typical rhythms and habits fell apart as imposter syndrome settled in. He started catastrophizing, thinking in all-or-nothing terms, overgeneralizing, disqualifying the positive. He was so overwhelmed by how much catching up he had to do, and had so little idea of where to start, that he ended up shutting down and doing nothing.

“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to help myself. And I really didn’t feel like I was getting a ton of help. It felt like I was on my own,” Lauer says. “And then, all of a sudden, things started snowballing. I started to be like, ‘Oh, s**t, is this it for me? Am I out of the game soon? Do I not have it anymore?’”

Meeting Lauer where he was, Cain encouraged him to better schedule his days, blocking off finite blocks of time for specific goals. A time block for lifting weights. A time block for being present with his family. A time block for arm care. A time block for relaxing by himself and doing his own thing.

Cain also introduced Lauer to the concept of telescopic and microscopic goals, which separate long-term visions and desired outcomes from short-term actions and behaviours. 

What does Lauer ultimately want? To be a quality MLB starter who consistently helps his team win. What does he need to achieve to be that? A high innings total and a low ERA. How can he move himself towards those marks? With a quality start today. What action can he take right now, on the mound for his first batter of the game, to throw a quality start? Execute strike one. 

It’s that small, concrete, controllable step that he needs to focus on. Nothing else. The rest is already in alignment to get him what he’s after. If he wins that small step with consistency, pitch after pitch, day after day, everything else takes care of itself.

“That really clears your mind. I don’t have to think of 30 things at once and go into the game clouded,” Lauer says. “I just have to be in the moment and have extreme, intense focus on controlling the execution of each pitch as well as I possibly can.”

Both Lauer and Heineman use a habit tracking app — HabitShare — to hold themselves accountable and provide Cain with data reflecting what’s working and what isn’t. It lists each of the mental skills tasks they’re currently trying to implement into their routine. When they complete one — journalling, mental imagery, something as simple as checking in with their spouse — they tap a circle and the habit turns green.

They’ll seldom, if ever, have a full day of green circles. And that’s the point. No one’s perfect. But everyone can get better over time. 

Maybe last week you turned two of seven habit circles green, and this week you got three. Maybe at this time a year ago, you were a minor-leaguer pursuing an offer to go play in Korea, and now you have the 12th-highest K-BB per cent among MLB starters while pitching for a first-place team. Maybe you’ve spent a half-decade as a half-dozen teams’ third catcher, and now you’re one half of the best catching tandem in the league.

“I feel like I belong more than I’ve felt in my life. There’s a peace and a sigh of relief in that, you know?” Heineman says. “I don’t feel like I’m an imposter as much as I’ve felt in the past when I’ve played in the big leagues. I feel like this is the level that I should be at for the first time in my life.

“And it’s cool. It’s awesome. But I know how baseball is. And I know I’m just having success right now. That doesn’t mean success tomorrow or the next day. I’m just really trying to stay as present as I can and enjoy it in the moment. And then, when tomorrow comes, start again.”