Background and career
Jason Alias Heyward (born August 9, 1989), nicknamed "J-Hey", is an American former professional baseball right fielder. He played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, and San Diego Padres. Originally the Braves' first-round selection in the 2007 MLB draft from Henry County High School in Georgia, Heyward began his minor league career at age 17. He appeared in three minor league all-star games and won two minor league player of the year awards. In 2010, multiple media outlets named Heyward the top prospect in all of baseball. Heyward debuted in MLB as Atlanta's starting right fielder on Opening Day 2010. He was named to the National League (NL) All-Star team that season and finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year Award voting. While injuries limited his playing time in 2011 and 2013, Heyward enjoyed a breakout season in 2012; that season, he hit 27 home runs, drove in 82 runs, scored 93 runs, and stole 21 bases. Heyward was traded to the Cardinals after the 2014 season. In December 2015, he signed with the Cubs as a free agent; he was a member of the Cubs' World Series-winning 2016 team. Heyward was released by the Cubs in November 2022 and played for the Dodgers in 2023 and 2024. Standing 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall and weighing 245 pounds (111 kg), Heyward throws and bats left-handed. He has worn uniform No. 22 through most of his major league career in honor of a high school friend and teammate who died in a traffic collision. Heyward has been widely regarded as one of the best outfield defenders in MLB. He won both the Fielding Bible and the NL Gold Glove Awards for right fielders in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, and he received Wilson's MLB Defensive Player of the Year in 2014.
The son of Dartmouth graduates, Jason Heyward was born on August 9, 1989, in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His father, Eugene, is from Beaufort, South Carolina, and his mother, Laura, is from New York City; they met at Dartmouth. Eugene played basketball and majored in engineering and Laura studied French. Eugene's uncle, Kenny Washington, played basketball for two John Wooden-led NCAA championship UCLA teams in 1964 and 1965. Jason has one younger brother, Jacob (b. 1995), who attended the University of Miami and played baseball for the Hurricanes. Jacob was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2016. The Heywards moved to the Atlanta metropolitan area soon after he was born. Jason played and showed marked ability in baseball from an early age. Before he turned 10, he played for a national championship. Eugene helped fuel both of his sons' passion for baseball. He dedicated himself to driving them to every tournament and competition possible in the family Chevrolet Suburban, which racked up hundreds of thousands of miles between the events and his 90-minute work commute to and from Robins Air Force Base to the south in Houston County. While his father emphasized that working hard and approaching the game with discipline were important, he also stressed that baseball was to be, above all else, fun. Heyward has maintained this same approach throughout his youth and professional career. One tournament in which he played was the renowned East Cobb Baseball program, where he was a standout and has produced other major league players. Heyward attended Henry County High School in McDonough near Atlanta. Heyward briefly played basketball in his youth but concentrated exclusively on baseball in high school at his father's urging. In February 2010, an Associated Press reporter learned from a varsity coach that Heyward's early batting practice exploits proved fatal to an oak tree in deep center field at the high school playing field. Facing off against future Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher Buster Posey of Lee County High in the Georgia Class AAAA baseball championship during Heyward's sophomore year, Henry County won two of the best-of-three series. Posey was actually the starting pitcher in the first game as Henry Country prevailed, 2–1. Heyward hit a game-tying 400 ft (120 m) home run in Game 2 to cap an eight-run comeback, but Lee County prevailed 14–10. The next game, Heyward's three-run single was the game and series winner in a 16–14 outcome. During his junior season, he again helped lead the Henry County High Warhawks to the state championship. As a senior, he batted .520 with eight home runs (HR) and 29 runs batted in (RBIs). One of Heyward's close friends and teammates from the 2005 AAAA Georgia state championship team, Andrew Wilmot, died in a traffic collision while attending college. Wilmot was a catcher who wore the uniform number 22, the number Heyward would later wear in his major league career to honor him. Wilmot's mother, Tammie Ruston, was Heyward's high school literature teacher in his senior year. Numerous colleges showed interest and recruited Heyward, including UCLA, which offered a full-ride scholarship due in part to the family connection. Heyward was also especially interested in Clemson and Georgia Tech. Concurrently, the hometown Atlanta Braves had followed and scouted him for years, while attempting to conceal their excitement.
Heyward was the 14th overall selection by Atlanta in the 2007 Major League Baseball draft. Despite signing a National Letter of Intent with UCLA, he chose professional baseball over college and signed a contract with the team worth $1.7 million. At age 17, Heyward began his professional career in Minor League Baseball in the Braves' system. He played for both the Gulf Coast League Braves and the Danville Braves of the Appalachian League in 2007. He homered in his first professional game. In 12 minor league contests in 2007, he batted .302 with one home run and six RBIs. In 2007, Baseball America selected Heyward as the Braves' top overall prospect and the organization's best power hitter; it cited Heyward as having the best strike zone discipline and excelling at multiple other skills. Heyward split the 2008 season between Single-A Rome of the South Atlantic League (SAL) and High-A Myrtle Beach of the Carolina League. He was named the club's Player of the Month in April. While playing for Rome, Heyward had 42 multi-hit games, including two four-hit games. He finished in the top three in nine offensive categories for the club. The Braves promoted Heyward to Myrtle Beach on August 25, 2008. He played seven games there. Following the 2008 season, Baseball America named Heyward the South Atlantic League's Most Outstanding Prospect, Top Batting Prospect, and Most Exciting Player. He was also a Baseball America All-Star for the entire minor leagues, Mid- and Post-Season All-Star, Low-Class A All-Star, and the Braves' second-best prospect. MLB.com named him the third-best overall minor league prospect. ESPN.com named him the minor leagues' best corner outfield prospect, the #1 Atlanta prospect, and third-overall minor-league prospect. Heyward started the 2009 season at Myrtle Beach and then gained successive promotions to Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett. He was named the Carolina League Player of the Week on May 18. Heyward was selected to the Carolina League All-Star team but missed the game due to an oblique injury. He participated in the All-Star Futures Game at Busch Stadium. On July 4, the Braves promoted Heyward to Mississippi, where he was named the team's Player of the Month. From September 5–7, he appeared with the Gwinnett Braves of the Triple-A of the International League. He also played four games with the Peoria Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League (AFL). That September, both Baseball America and USA Today named Heyward their Minor League Player of the Year. He won the Braves' Hank Aaron Award (not to be confused with MLB's Hank Aaron Award), conferred annually to the top offensive player in the Braves organization. Entering the 2010 season, Baseball America, Keith Law of ESPN.com and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com each listed Heyward as baseball's top prospect; BA ranked him ahead of Stephen Strasburg and Giancarlo Stanton. The Braves added Heyward to their 40-man roster before the 2010 season began.
After Heyward made a rapid ascent through the minor leagues, the Braves invited him to spring training in March 2010. There, his hitting continued to draw notice; he routinely hit "rockets" all over the field and over the fences, compelling manager Bobby Cox to make him a regular in the lineup. Cox mentioned that the balls Heyward hit made a different, more pronounced sound than the balls hit by other players. Heyward hit two notable batting practice home runs at the Champion Stadium training complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. One damaged a Coca-Cola truck in the parking lot, and another broke the sunroof of Atlanta Braves' assistant general manager Bruce Manno's car. He was initially issued uniform number 71. At the end of spring training, he asked for and received number 22, which he wore in memory of his deceased high school teammate, Andrew Wilmot. Heyward was one of the most anticipated prospects in all of baseball. Shirts depicting his nickname, "The J-Hey Kid," were in high demand before he even played his first official major league game. Fans and pundits prognosticated on a future Hall of Fame career, comparing Heyward to former greats such as Darryl Strawberry, Willie McCovey and Willie Mays, among many others. In fact, the "J-Hey Kid" nickname was drawn from Mays' nickname, "The Say Hey Kid." On March 26, after Heyward led the club in on-base percentage and slugging percentage in spring training, the Braves named him their starting right fielder. During his first MLB plate appearance – and on his first swing at an MLB pitch – Heyward hit a three-run home run, estimated at 471 feet (144 m), off of starter Carlos Zambrano. Heyward became the fifth player in Braves history to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat and the 11th in franchise history to do so in his MLB debut. Through Atlanta's first 50 games, Heyward lived up to the hype that surrounded him, hitting 10 home runs while batting .301 with a .421 OBP and .596 slugging percentage. He was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Month in both April and May. However, after sustaining a thumb injury while sliding in May, Heyward missed playing time. After he returned later in the season, his performance declined and consistency was elusive. He was selected as a starter for the NL All-Star team, but did not participate due to his thumb injury. Heyward stole home in a double steal against the Washington Nationals in the first inning on July 28. In so doing, he became the first Brave to steal home since Rafael Furcal, who had done so more than ten years earlier. A 16–5 victory over the Cubs on August 22 featured Heyward's first MLB multi-home run game, as well as career highs in hits and runs scored with four each. In the final 112 games of the season, Heyward batted .266 with a .381 OBP and .396 SLG. Heyward made his postseason debut on October 7, 2010, in the National League Division Series (NLDS) against the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco eliminated Atlanta, and Heyward had just two hits in the entire series. Heyward finished his first major league season with a .277 batting average, a .393 on-base percentage, 18 home runs, and 83 runs scored in 142 regular season games. He ranked fourth overall in the NL in OBP and walks. Heyward was named the Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year, the Baseball America MLB Rookie of the Year; he was also named to the Baseball America All-Rookie Team and to Topps' Major League Rookie All-Star Team. He finished second in the voting for the NL Rookie of the Year award.
Heyward's second MLB season commenced in a fashion that reprised the high expectations from his rookie season, but injuries ultimately led to a lengthy and dramatic slump. In the spring, Heyward was diagnosed with a degenerative condition in his lower back. He hit a home run off of Nationals pitcher Liván Hernández in his first at-bat of the season on March 31. He became just the second MLB player, after Kazuo Matsui, to homer in his first major league at-bat on Opening Day and to hit a home run in his first at-bat of the following season. In a back-and-forth game with the Giants on April 24, he hit a go-ahead home run off relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt in a 9–6, ten-inning victory. Having previously been represented by Victor Menocal from Career Sports Entertainment (CSE) until Menocal resigned from CSE, news emerged on May 6 that Heyward had made Casey Close his new agent. From the beginning of spring training, Heyward endured lingering shoulder soreness. After Heyward collected just four hits in his first 41 at-bats in May, the Braves performed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan on May 12 which revealed an inflamed rotator cuff, but no structural damage. He rested and received a cortisone injection, but aggravated the injury days later during batting practice. The Braves placed him on the disabled list (DL) on May 22. The following month, teammate Chipper Jones publicly criticized Heyward for not playing through his injuries; Jones said, "I think where Jason might have erred was the comment that he made, 'I'm not coming back until it doesn't hurt anymore.' ... What Jason needs to realize is that Jason at 80 percent is a force, and Jason at 80 percent is better than a lot of people in this league". Jones later explained that he reassured Heyward in a phone call that he did not intend to misrepresent Heyward's efforts to rehabilitate. Upon his return from the DL, Heyward experienced difficulty driving the ball. A sixth-inning home run against the Baltimore Orioles on July 1 was Heyward's first since April 29 against the St. Louis Cardinals, a span of 104 at-bats. During a game against the Chicago Cubs on August 23, Heyward hit his first career grand slam. Through the end of August, the Braves were the NL wild card leader. However, the Cardinals overcame a 10+1⁄2-game deficit for the wild card position by winning 20 of their final 28 games, eliminating the Braves from the playoffs on the final day of the season. The Braves' failure to make the playoffs was one of the epic late-season collapses in MLB history. Heyward's overall performance dropped off from his performance during his rookie season. His batting average dropped 50 points to .227; his other contributions, also in decline, included 14 home runs and 42 RBIs in 128 games.
In an effort to improve his performance, Heyward took extra steps in his preseason preparation. He streamlined his swing to mitigate bad habits incorporated after the shoulder injury. He modified his diet to include more fruits, chicken, and fish. Further, he participated in physical therapy to strengthen the shoulder and worked for a leaner weight, dropping from 256 pounds (116 kg) to 235 pounds (107 kg). He started the 2012 season slowly. However, his bases-loaded double on May 13 off Lance Lynn drove in the game-winning run as the Braves triumphed over the Cardinals, 7–4. On June 7, Heyward's first multi-HR game of the season (and the second of his career) helped secure an 8–2 victory over the Marlins. On June 19, he threw the New York Yankees' Mark Teixeira out at home plate, preserving a 4–3 win. In a 12-game hitting streak that spanned from June 13 to 27, Heyward batted .455 (20-for-44) and homered four times. After the season, Heyward captured his first career defensive awards: an MLB Fielding Bible Award and a National League Rawlings Gold Glove Award. In 158 games, he batted .269 with career highs of 27 home runs, 82 RBIs, and 21 stolen bases.
