The Royals find a super-utility man

Cavan Biggio joins the organization on a minor league deal.

We’ve been waiting all offseason for the Royals to sign the 2025 edition of Adam Frazier. They secured their so-called super-utility man on Sunday, announcing they’re bringing in Cavan Biggio on a minor league contract.

Once upon a time, Biggio looked like a guy with a big league future. In his first season, in 2019, he posted a 2.6 fWAR while hitting .234/.364/.429, showing a nice combination of speed and power. He followed that up in the shortened Covid season of 2020 with a 1.4 fWAR, hitting .250/.375/.432 in the process. If you combine his first two seasons, Biggio played in a tidy 159 games coming to the plate 695 times while hitting .240/.368/.430. Not bad at all.

Tasked with playing third base for the Jays in 2021, Biggio struggled. Injuries also contributed to his slide in performance as he dealt with hand issues, a neck strain, mid-back tightness, and finally, a UCL sprain. Since then, Biggio’s modest power has evaporated and his ability to get on base—his primary calling card in his best seasons—has likewise suffered.

If you look at his career as a whole, he’s been largely a league-average hitter. Sure, that’s an argument that can be made. Except the more recent performances tell a completely different story—the story of a player who cannot recapture his early successes.

The Jays grew tired of waiting for Biggio to recover any kind of offensive mojo he might possess and designated him for assignment early last season. That began quite the baseball journey. he landed first with the Dodgers. After a couple of months in LA, they cut him loose and he caught on with the Giants who then flipped him to the Braves a couple of weeks later. The Royals will be Biggio’s fifth different organization since the start of last season.

Biggio’s strength as a hitter comes from his strike-zone recognition. In his career, he’s chased on pitches outside of the zone under 16 percent of the time. That’s an elite chase rate. The league average is generally around 28 percent.

It’s a fantastic foundation for any hitter. The issue in Biggio’s case is he just doesn’t hit the ball hard when he’s making contact in the zone. Last season, his Statcast metrics fell off a cliff. His average exit velocity was 82 MPH compared to a career average of around 88 MPH. His Hard-Hit Rate plummeted to 17 percent, down from an average close to 33 percent.

The other issue is Biggio’s strikeout rate. You would expect someone with the kind of strike zone recognition that possesses to avoid the whiffs, but that’s not the case. Biggio’s career strikeout rate is 27 percent, which is entirely too high for a player with his kind of profile.

The strikeout rate is elevated because not only does he not chase pitches out of the zone, he just doesn’t swing the bat much at all. His overall swing rate is about 10 percentage points below the league-average player. Over 40 percent of his strikeouts have been on called third strikes. The average major league hitter looks at a called third strike just 23 percent of all strikeouts.

Yeah, it’s probably not fair to post a GIF of Biggio looking at 98 MPH on the corner from Cole Ragans. I love the guy sitting right behind that chicken sandwich who throws his arms up in the air. He’s seen this before.

Let’s talk about the “super-utility” moniker the Royals dropped in their announcement of Biggio’s signing. Mileage certainly varies and I saw a lot of online chatter about how a true super-utility guy is someone like Tony Phillips, who was a regular starter in myriad positions throughout his career and generally played well. The point here is that the difference between a “super” utility guy over just a run-of-the-mill utility guy is the most “super” of utility players is someone who is a solid everyday player. That’s not Biggio at this point in his career.

I would grant “super utility” status to a player who manned several defensive positions and played those positions well. The proverbial defensive Swiss Army knife. Again, that’s not something Biggio brings to a club. Not at least according to various defensive metrics.

His most common position in the majors has been second base, followed by third and then right field. He grades out as below average when he’s on the infield according to Outs Above Average and Fielding Runs. He’s break-even in the outfield.

Biggio certainly isn’t a butcher when it comes to the glove, although I would avoid playing him at third. Yet his glove—and his positional versatility—isn’t enough to overcome the deficiencies with the bat.

Super-utility? Probably not, but I’m not going to get all wrapped up in the language. It’s a baseball move and it came in the middle of a blizzard while I was ponding what to post this week. Thank you, JJ Picollo.

At least the Royals didn’t herald Biggio’s signing as a “major baseball announcement.” Although that would’ve been fun.

The most important question to be asked is if Biggio makes this team, how much playing time will he find?

We know Matt Quatraro loves guys who can play all over the field. We also know that Quatraro rotates a lot in an effort to keep everyone fresh and engaged. Biggio may still have a spot on a major league roster as the 26th man, a pinch runner or pinch hitter when you roll the dice to get a man on base to jumpstart a rally.

Before we get to that point though, Biggio has to show he still has something left. I’m unconvinced. I will say that if he somehow makes the club out of spring training (or is called up early in the season) and then goes on to have upwards of 300 plate appearances, something has gone sideways for the Royals. The profile at the plate just leaves too much to be desired, especially entering his age 30 season.

This isn’t a signing that moves the needle…in any direction. It’s just kind of meh. The old Royals would’ve signed Biggio to a major league deal for a couple of million. A commitment that would’ve seen him with the team for the entire season. So maybe this is…progress?

A minor league contract for a guy entering his age 30 season and has had some success at the big league level? Sure. Why not? Worth a shot. Even if that shot figures to be extremely long.