Last season was rough on Chris Heisey; with a young family of a little boy and another on the way, Chris was on the other end of the continent from his eastern Pennsylvania home.
He had left his friends in the only organization he'd known and headed to Los Angeles to play baseball.
Heisey was up and down with the Dodgers all season. The 31-year old Heisey started the season with Oklahoma City in the Pacific Coast League after being with the Dodgers all spring. He hit 15 home runs in 66 games with a .244 average, while going up and down between the Dodgers and Oklahoma City. Heisey played in 33 games for Los Angeles and hit .182 with two home runs. The Dodgers released Heisey on August 7th and he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, who sent him to Buffalo. A month later he was back with the Dodgers.
His major league manager and major supporter, Dusty Baker was hired by the Washington Nationals on November 3. Heisey signed as a minor league free agent on December 3 and made the team out of spring training.
The veteran outfielder leads active qualified Major League pinch hitters with a .634 slugging percentage and 14 home runs. Heisey clubbed the 14th pinch hit home run on May 13 against Miami. He is tied for the Major League lead with three pinch hit home runs this season. It is good enough to be tied at the top of the Nationals list for home runs by a pinch hitter. Heisey hit his first walk-off home run in the 16th inning in a win over Minnesota on April 24.
Heisey is reunited with Dusty Baker along with several other former Reds. Bronson Arroyo is in Florida, rehabbing and trying to learn to throw sidearm. Matt Belisle is on a rehab assignment and is close to returning. Nick Masset and Burke Badenhop went to spring training with the Nationals on a minor league contract.
Heisey is the one who is flourishing in his role off the bench.
'I'm not doing anything different. I am just more experienced," said Heisey, who is wearing number 14, a number that has been unofficially retired in Cincinnati and will become official later this month.
The 31-year old Heisey started the season with Oklahoma City in the Pacific Coast League after being with the Dodgers all spring. He hit 15 home runs in 66 games with a .244 average, while going up and down between the Dodgers and Oklahoma City. Heisey played in 33 games for Los Angeles and hit .182 with two home runs. The Dodgers released Heisey on August 7th and he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, who sent him to Buffalo. A month later he was back with the Dodgers.
His major league manager and major supporter, Dusty Baker was hired by the Washington Nationals on November 3. Heisey signed as a minor league free agent on December 3 and made the team out of spring training.The veteran outfielder leads active qualified Major League pinch hitters with a .634 slugging percentage and 14 home runs. Heisey clubbed the 14th pinch hit home run on May 13 against Miami. He is tied for the Major League lead with three pinch hit home runs this season. It is good enough to be tied at the top of the Nationals list for home runs by a pinch hitter. Heisey hit his first walk-off home run in the 16th inning in a win over Minnesota on April 24.
Heisey was part of a 'back up quarterback" controversy when he was with Cincinnati with Baker as the manager. Fans wondered out loud why Baker didn't like Heisey. Baker matched Heisey up against pitchers he could handle and his numbers exceeded his talent. Now Baker is in the same type of controversy with fans clamoring for Trea Turner to play in the big leagues. Turner was recalled for the weekend from Syracuse because Ryan Zimmerman is on paternity leave.
"Dusty is still the same," Heisey said. "The only thing different is he is trying to stay calm and not argue with umpires as much since his heart attack (mild stroke)." Baker missed the Reds' clinching celebration in 2012 after he had a mild stroke in Chicago that year.
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