Draft and minor leagues Heyward was the 14th overall selection by Atlanta in the
2007 Major League Baseball draft. Despite signing a
National Letter of Intent with UCLA, 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. 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
2011 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. 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. 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 -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. 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. with whom Heyward would play for the remainder of his Braves tenure. An
appendectomy on April 22 led to Heyward being placed on the 15-day disabled list. He returned from the appendectomy on May 17, going 2-for-4 in an 8–5 win against the
Dodgers. He had surgery, which required the insertion of two
plates, and returned on September 20. Heyward began wearing a protective shield attached to the right side of his
batting helmet. He struck out and walked in a 9–5 win against the
Chicago Cubs. Six days later, Heyward set career highs against
Philadelphia with five hits and four extra-base hits. After two stints on the DL, Heyward appeared in 104 total games, batting .254 with 14 home runs, 38 RBI, and 67 runs scored. The Braves' record was 71–33 in the games in which he appeared. Already rated one of the top defensive outfielders in the league, Heyward significantly improved his coverage in right field during the early part of the season. Two catches on balls hit by star
Mike Trout – one on a sinking line drive and one on a ball Heyward leaped to catch at the warning track – helped ensure a 7–3 victory over the
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on June 15. Playing as the Braves' primary leadoff hitter, Heyward played in 149 games and finished with a .271 batting average, 74 runs scored, 11 home runs, 58 RBI and 20 stolen bases. Heyward was the recipient of several awards, including his second of both the Rawlings NL Gold Glove Award and the Fielding Bible Award for all MLB right fielders; he won the latter award unanimously.
Wilson Sporting Goods named him their MLB right field
Defensive Player of the Year and their overall MLB Defensive Player of the Year.
St. Louis Cardinals (2015) On November 17, 2014, the Braves traded Heyward to the
St. Louis Cardinals along with pitcher
Jordan Walden for pitchers
Shelby Miller and
Tyrell Jenkins to replace their former right fielder and top prospect
Oscar Taveras, who died in a car accident a month earlier. Cardinals
manager Mike Matheny, who wore uniform #22 and had also done so for most of his playing career, gave his number to Heyward; Heyward wears this number to honor his late friend and teammate Andrew Wilmot. Heyward homered in three straight games from June 22 to 24. On July 18 against the
Mets, he matched a career high with five hits in a 12–2 win. In an August 16 contest against the Marlins, Heyward hit two home runs for his first multi-home run game with the Cardinals. In the second game of a
doubleheader against Pittsburgh on September 30, Heyward hit his second career grand slam in an 11–1 win, giving the Cardinals their 100th victory of the season while clinching their third consecutive
National League Central division title. He also robbed both
Francisco Cervelli and
Michael Morse of hits in that game. Heyward finished the season with a career-high .293 batting average, a .359 on-base percentage, and a .439 slugging percentage. Among all outfielders since 2010, Heyward's 96.2 accumulated
ultimate zone rating (UZR) led the major leagues. The
Cardinals lost the National League Division Series to the Chicago Cubs, three games to one. After becoming a
free agent for the first time in his career, Heyward won his third Fielding Bible Award and his third Gold Glove.
Chicago Cubs (2016–2022) 2016 On December 15, 2015, Heyward signed an eight-year, $184 million contract with the
Cubs. At the time of Heyward's signing, the contract was the largest player contract that had ever been signed by the Cubs. During his tenure with the Cubs, Heyward's play did not reach the expectations created by his contract. One of Heyward's first acts after signing his contract was to pay for hotel suites large enough to accommodate teammate
David Ross, his wife, and their three young children on all of the Cubs' road trips during the 2016 season. Ross, set to retire after the 2016 season, had been Heyward's teammate during his first three seasons in Atlanta, and Heyward considered him a key mentor in his early MLB career. In an interview with
Bleacher Report, Heyward said,I know how special it is to have teammates like he was my first three years in Atlanta. You don't take it for granted. I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, as a teammate and as a friend, for what he's done for me. Heyward struggled in his first season with the Cubs in 2016, batting only .230 with 7 home runs and 49 RBIs; In Game Four of the
2016 National League Division Series against the
San Francisco Giants, with the Cubs holding a 2–1 series lead, Heyward reached on a bunt force out. He then moved to second on an errant throw and scored the go-ahead run on a
Javier Baez single, sending the Cubs to the
2016 National League Championship Series. On October 25, 2016, Heyward, along with teammates
Dexter Fowler,
Addison Russell, and
Carl Edwards Jr., became the first African-Americans to play for the Cubs in a
World Series game. Heyward was credited with leading an inspiring players-only meeting during a 17-minute rain delay near the end of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. The Cubs eventually won the game 8–7 after 10 innings, which gave the franchise its first World Series championship in 108 years. Heyward hit .104 during the 2016 playoffs. On November 9, Heyward became the first position player in Major League Baseball history to win three straight Gold Glove Awards with three different teams (Braves, Cardinals, and Cubs).
2017 On May 8, 2017, Heyward went on the 10-day disabled list due to a sprained finger he suffered in a game against the Yankees three days prior. In late June, Heyward suffered a left-hand laceration while catching a foul ball in Pittsburgh and was unavailable to play in the next series of games. Heyward chose "J-Hey" as his nickname for the Players Weekend during the 2017 season. For the season, Heyward hit .259 with 11 home runs and 59 RBIs. On June 6, Heyward hit a walk-off grand slam home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Cubs a 7–5 win over the
Philadelphia Phillies. At the All-Star break, Heyward had a .285 batting average with 78 hits in 274 plate appearances with six home runs and 41 RBIs, a .344 OBP and a .431 SLG. Heyward ended the season with a .270 batting average, eight home runs, and 57 RBIs. It was also his first multi-homer game as a Cub. On April 24, he hit a dramatic three-run home run late in the game to regain the lead in a 7–6 victory against the
Los Angeles Dodgers. On May 8, Heyward hit a walk-off, solo home run against the
Miami Marlins in the 11th inning, giving the Cubs a 3–2 win. This was Heyward's third walk-off hit and second walk-off home run as a Cub. With that hit, he snapped a 1-for-20 slump. For the season, Heyward hit .251 with 21 home runs and 62 RBIs.
2021 In 2021, Heyward slashed .214/.280/.347 with eight home runs and 30 RBIs in 104 games.
2022 On May 8, 2022, Heyward was placed on the injured list with a left quadriceps strain. He returned to the IL in late June. He remained on the injured list through August. In August, Cubs general manager
Jed Hoyer stated that the team would release Heyward at the end of the season. In 48 games for the Cubs, Heyward batted .204/.278/.277 with one home run and 10 RBI. He was officially released by Chicago on November 14, 2022, despite the fact that the Cubs still owed him a salary of $22 million for the 2023 season. hitting 62 home runs in 2,522 plate appearances. In December 2022,
The Sporting News included Heyward's eight-year, $184 million contract with the Cubs on its list of the top 15 worst MLB free-agent contracts of all time.
Los Angeles Dodgers (2023–2024) On December 8, 2022, Heyward signed a minor league contract with the
Los Angeles Dodgers that included an invitation to major league spring training. He made the Dodgers' Opening Day roster, reworked his swing, accepted a platoon role, and enjoyed a resurgent season. Heyward played in 124 games, batting .269 with 15 homers and 40 RBI. In 63 games for them in 2024, he batted .208 with six home runs and 28 RBI. The Dodgers released him on August 26.
Houston Astros (2024) On August 29, 2024, Heyward signed a one-year, major league contract with the
Houston Astros. During his debut as an Astro, Heyward hit a key two-run double that spearheaded a 6–3 win versus the
Kansas City Royals. On September 24, 2024, the Astros clinched their fourth straight
American League (AL) West Division title with a 4–3 win over the
Seattle Mariners. Heyward made a jumping catch into the scoreboard to take away a hit in the top of the fifth inning and hit a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to give the Astros a lead they would not relinquish. As a member of the Astros, Heyward appeared in 24 games, batting .218/.283/.473 in 61 plate appearances, 2 doubles, 4 home runs, 9 RBI, and 1 stolen base. He played 16 games in right field, 8 in left field, and 2 in center field. Heyward appeared in both games of, and was 0-for-3 in, the
American League Wild Card Series (ALWCS), which was swept by the
Detroit Tigers.
San Diego Padres On February 11, 2025, Heyward signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the
San Diego Padres. In 34 appearances for the Padres, he batted .176/.223/.271 with two home runs and 12 RBI. On June 21, Heyward was
designated for assignment by San Diego. He was released by the team on June 24. On March 27, 2026, Heyward announced his retirement from professional baseball. ==Awards==