Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers have announced that they have agreed to terms with catcher Kyle Higashioka (pronounced ‘he-GAH-she-OH-kah’) on a two-year contract, covering the 2025 and 2026 seasons, with a mutual option for 2027.
Higashioka, 34, batted .220/.263/.476/.739 (54-246) and set career highs in home runs (17), RBIs (45), and runs (29) over 84 games for San Diego in 2024, his first season with the Padres. Behind the plate, he caught 20.0% of attempted base stealers, ranking fourth among National League catchers with at least 75 starts.
Prior to his stint in San Diego, Higashioka spent his first 16 professional seasons (starting in 2008) with the New York Yankees organization. The right-handed batter and thrower made his MLB debut for the Yankees in 2017 after 10 seasons in the minors, tying the club record for the longest gap from draft to debut by a player drafted and debuting with the team. He was traded from New York to San Diego on December 7, 2023, as part of the deal that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees. At the time of the trade, Higashioka was the longest-tenured player in the Yankees organization.
Since 2020, Higashioka has made five consecutive Opening Day rosters and appeared in the postseason four times (2020-22 with the Yankees, 2024 with the Padres), hitting four home runs in his postseason career. He served as the catcher for the 24th perfect game in MLB history, thrown by the Yankees’ Domingo Germán on June 28, 2023, at Oakland, and also caught Corey Kluber’s no-hitter on May 19, 2021, against Texas at Globe Life Field, becoming the 13th catcher in MLB history to catch both a perfect game and a no-hitter.
A native of Huntington Beach, California, Higashioka has a career slash line of .212/.255/.412/.668 (234-1104) with 57 home runs in 398 career games spanning eight Major League seasons with the Yankees (2017-23) and the Padres (2024). His 28.4 catcher framing runs since 2019 rank seventh in MLB during that span, according to Fangraphs. He was originally selected by the Yankees in the seventh round of the 2008 MLB Draft from Edison High School in California.
With the addition of Higashioka, the Rangers now have 39 players on their Major League roster.
