Royals DFA Hall Of Famer's Son To Make Room For Reliever's Return
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It's extremely hard to keep a major league roster spot, no matter how royal your baseball blood may be.
The Kansas City Royals brought utility man Cavan Biggio to town on a minor league contract in the offseason, and the early results were none too promising. In 37 games at the start of the season, Biggio slashed .174/.296/.256, good for an OPS+ of 55.
The son of Houston Astros Hall of Fame second baseman Craig Biggio, the younger Biggio has now been let go by five organizations in just over one calendar year.
Biggio was optioned to Triple-A on May 26, and he was playing quite well, posting an .839 OPS in 41 games. But the Royals evidently didn't think he was going to get another crack at playing time this season, because they're now content to lose him if need be.
On Friday, Biggio was designated for assignment as a corresponding move for relief pitcher Hunter Harvey's activation from the 60-day injured list. Right-handed pitcher Jonathan Bowlan was also optioned to Triple-A to make space on the active roster.
Because Biggio has over five years of service time, he can elect free agency if he doesn't wish to accept an outright assignment to the minors. But first, any team can claim him, which might happen considering how well he was playing at Triple-A.
It once looked like Biggio was on his way to carving out a nice career for himself. He had 5.3 bWAR in his first two partial seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays from 2019-2020. But it's been mostly downhill since, and now that he's 30, he's looking for any possible opportunity to earn his way back to the big leagues.
Friday could be the end of Biggio's time in Kansas City, but nothing is official until we find out the results of the waiver process.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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