The Royals announced Friday that infielder/outfielder Cavan Biggio has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to reliever Hunter Harvey, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Righty Jonathan Bowlan has been optioned to Triple-A.
Biggio, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He cracked the Opening Day roster but hit just .174/.296/.246 in a part-time role. In late May, the Royals optioned him to the minors. As a veteran player with at least five years of big league service time, he can’t be optioned without his consent, so he presumably agreed to the move.
Since getting sent down, he’s been playing well for Triple-A Omaha, with a .285/.375/.464 line and 120 wRC+. However, he never got called back up, so it seems the Royals didn’t have him in their big league plans. He heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Royals could take as long as five days to explore trade interest.
Biggio had some early-career success thanks to a keen eye at the plate. However, it seems that pitchers realized they could attack him more without really being afraid of the consequences. In his 2019 debut season, he hit 16 home runs and drew walks at a 16.5% clip, helping him produce a .234/.364/.429 line and 115 wRC+. 49.8% of pitches he saw that year were in the zone. That number gradually ticked up closer to 60% over the years and he didn’t make pitchers pay. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a .214/.323/.342 line and 90 wRC+.
He is at least capable of being a serviceable multi-positional guy. He has experience at every position on the diamond outside the battery, though he has just one inning at shortstop. His brief big league stint with the Royals didn’t go well but he seemed to bounce back in the minors, so perhaps he’ll garner interest from a club that needs some position player depth. With the trade deadline coming up, some clubs will be subtracting from their rosters and might look for veterans to fill in the gaps.
Photo courtesy of Brad Rempel, Imagn Images