The new brigade is taking over baseball. Across the MLB landscape, teams continue to throw caution to the wind promoting rookies early in the season exposing them to Super 2 status allowing them to reach arbitration a year early. One of the most recent callups is the son of Hall of Famer, and his name is Cavan Biggio.
Cavan Biggio, 2B, Blue Jays
24 years old
Bats/Throws: Left/Right
Height/Weight: 6’2”, 200 lbs
Position: Second base, Outfield
THE NUMBERS
|
|
Level |
Games |
AVG |
HR |
RBI |
Runs |
SB |
OPS |
|
2016 |
A |
62 |
.273 |
0 |
26 |
27 |
11 |
.720 |
|
2017 |
A+ |
127 |
.233 |
11 |
60 |
75 |
11 |
.705 |
|
2018 |
AA |
132 |
.252 |
26 |
99 |
80 |
20 |
.887 |
|
2019 |
AAA |
41 |
.306 |
6 |
26 |
23 |
5 |
.948 |
|
|
|
362 |
.255 |
43 |
211 |
205 |
47 |
.797 |
Drafted in the 29th round in 2013.
Drafted in the 5th round in 2016.
THE SKILLS
Biggio’s calling card is his advanced understanding of the strike zone. After walking 74 times in 2017 he upped the mark to 100 free passes last season, the third most in the minors. He’s not afraid to wait for his pitch, or to work deep in counts. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising to note that he posted an impressive .388 OBP last season. This year, his game has gone into hyperdrive with a .445 mark in 41 games at Triple-A. He figures to continue to offer the same approach at the big-league level. “He’s really good at controlling the zone,” Bisons hitting coach Corey Hat said. “He’s not swinging at bad pitches, and when he is swinging, he’s not missing. His foul ball rate is really down from last year. The bat is on plane longer, and that gives him a really good chance to make good contact.”
Speaking of that swing, during the offseason after the 2017 campaign, Biggio made some mechanical adjustments to his stroke. He lowered his hands which helped him to keep his bat in the hitting zone a bit longer by smoothing out his stroke. The results have been an increased offensive game.
In 2017 he hit 11 homers with a .130 Isolated Power mark.
Swing change enacted.
In 2018 he hit 26 homers with a .247 ISO as his SLG went up .136 points.
This year the numbers have pulled back in the ISO category (.197) but his overall success has increased. His batting average is up more than .050 points to .307 and his SLG is up five points from last season (.504). All told he has special .949 OPS. Remember the approach that was spoken of above? This year Biggio is rocking the best walk rate of his career (19.7 percent) and a four year low in the K-rate column (16.2 percent) resulting in a massive 1.21 BB/K ratio. Yes, he has six more walks than strikeouts. Again, that approach is gonna play in the bigs.
However, it’s not all roses with Biggio. Being a patient hitter he could be prone to bouts of strikeouts as he will often be working deep in counts. Therefore, it’s likely that the 10 percent drop in the K-rate that we’ve seen this season is merely a reflection of a guy who is completely locked in. The strikeouts don’t figure to be a problem per se, but he’s more likely to hit .250 than .275.
There are also concerns because of how his season has played out. Though his overall numbers are great, his effort to this point is pretty front loaded. Biggio posted a 1.120 OPS in April with five homers. In May, it’s been a different story as his production has shrunk appreciable. In fact, it seems like a bit of an odd time to call him up. In May, Biggio has hit just .246 with a .369 SLG as he’s gone deep one time in 65 at-bats. He’s still getting on base at an impressive clip, .388, but his bat has lost a lot of the luster that has driven his season long numbers to this point. Point blank – he’s not swinging the bat great right now though he is still getting on base.
Biggio is often lauded for his instincts. “Cavan is just a very intelligent player. He’s got incredible instincts for the game,” Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim said. “He has a very good ability to make adjustments on his own, which speaks to his feel and experience of the game.” While he doesn’t grade out as anything other than average in the speed category, he uses those instincts to help him steal a base. He swiped 20 last season, and has five thefts this season. He could reach double-digit thefts in the bigs.
PLAYING TIME
Biggio has played 28 games at first, 264 at second, 46 at third base and nine times in the outfield.
Lourdes Gurriel will also be called up. Gurriel was pretty solid last season with a .281-11-35 line over 65 games, but he was atrocious to start this season (.175 with a .525 OPS) resulting in his demotion. At Triple-A he went .273-4-26-17 with a .784 OPS over 30 games, so he was better, but hardly impressive. Still, he’s going to see some playing time, perhaps even in the outfield after suffering the “yips” making it a struggle to complete the throw from second base to first.
Realize that Gurriel was supposed to play second this season along with Devon Travis at the start of the season. Then the team turned to Eric Sogard before looking Biggio’s way. Also realize that Bo Bichette, out with a broken finger, could put pressure on Biggio if he doesn’t do his thing in the second half (yes, Bichette is a shortstop, but he could also move to second base if the team chooses to keep Freddy Galvis there). Sogard and Travis (if he ever plays again) will not stop Biggio from playing, though it’s possible that Gurriel could take some time away from him, especially if Cavan carries over some of his May minor league struggles.
CONCLUSION
Biggio has skills that sit quite nicely into the 2019 game of baseball. He works the count, gets on base and can power the ball into the seats. He also offers at least a little defensive flexibility which should help to keep him active most days he is on the big-league roster. Even with that being the case, he doesn’t possess any standout skills that are likely to lead to significant fantasy value. If everything comes together he’s a Yasmani Grandal type with the bat. If it doesn’t come together, he could end up being sent back to the minors for some more seasoning.
FAAB BIDDING: A week after the insane bidding on all those youngsters, it will be very interesting how aggressive people will be this week. I would not recommend being uber-aggressive as there are likely to be second base types on waivers that are the equal of Biggio. Let’s go 10-15 percent range on the bidding.
