The Diamondbacks are signing catcher/corner infielder P.J. Higgins to a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster Spring Training invitee.
Higgins, 29, joins the second organization of his career. He’d spent his first eight seasons with the Cubs after being drafted out of Old Dominion in the 12th round in 2015. Higgins slowly climbed the minor league ladder and reached the big leagues for the first time in 2021. He played in nine games before suffering a torn UCL in his throwing elbow that required Tommy John surgery and ended his season.
Chicago ran him through outright waivers after the season but quickly brought him back on a minor league contract. Higgins made the MLB roster in May and tallied 229 plate appearances over 74 games last year. He hit .229/.310/.383, connecting on six home runs while walking at a quality 9.6% clip. He struck out in a little more than a quarter of his trips but generally posted solid offensive numbers for a catcher.
Higgins didn’t perform as well behind the dish, however. He split his defensive time roughly evenly between catcher and first base. In 236 innings as a backstop, he was behind the plate for 13 wild pitches and three passed balls. He had below-average arm strength and cut down only three of 19 attempted basestealers (a 15.8% success rate). Paired with below-average pitch framing marks, Higgins rated a cumulative six runs below average as a catcher, as estimated by Defensive Runs Saved. He graded out as a roughly average defender at first base and also picked up a pair of starts at the hot corner.
After the season, Chicago signed Tucker Barnhart to pair with Yan Gomes at catcher. The Cubs ran Higgins through waivers for a second time, and he again hit minor league free agency. This time, he’ll depart the organization for an opportunity to vie for reps in Arizona.
The D-Backs have three catchers on the 40-man roster. Rookie Gabriel Moreno will be the starter before long after coming over from the Blue Jays in the Daulton Varsho trade. Carson Kelly looks likely to settle into a backup role at that point, while José Herrera could head back to Triple-A Reno as a depth option.
Higgins adds some upper level depth behind them and a right-handed bat to potentially vie for some reps in the infield. He’s a .279/.365/.378 hitter over parts of seven minor league campaigns. He still has all three option years remaining, so the D-Backs would be able to shuttle him between Phoenix and Reno if he eventually grabs a 40-man roster spot.
Wow!
Wish him the best. Everyone in the cubs organization had nothing but good stuff to say about him. Hopefully he grabs a utility role and performs well. Wish he woulda been in Iowa opening day.
Poll:
A.) Gabriel Moreno will be up and starting on Opening Day
B.) Gabriel Moreno will be up and platooning or backing up on Opening Day
C.) Gabriel Moreno will be in the minors on Opening Day but will be up sometime during the year
B
Higgins is a perfectly acceptable option-able backup 1B, occasional DH against LH starters and #3 catcher. Ideally he shouldn’t catch more than 250 innings, but he is an ideal version of the last bench guy who plays on getaway day after a night game. And if you have to send him to Reno for two weeks because of an immediate roster crunch, you can.
I hope that his spring is solid enough to be A), but as a realist I think B) is the correct answer.
In an unrelated note, this team could really use a solid vet presence in the locker room. Would love to see them get Goldy back as a veteran locker room guy once his contract in STL is up. He would still be solid enough at first and could now DH in the NL.
Thanks for your thoughts. I am in a NL keeper rotisserie league and I have to decide how much to bid on Moreno. I saw the Higgins signing and I wondered if there is a small chance that he starts the year in the minors. Is there still a service time advantage to that?
The FO has stated that they acquired Moreno with intention to have a timeshare at C between him and Kelly. Both are RHB, so it’s not going to be a platoon.
Opening Day starter will likely be determined by Spring Training performance (or it will possibly just outright be Kelly if facing a LHP).
There’s no doubt that he opens the season in MLB if healthy, though; he’s already exhausted his Rookie eligibility and trying to hold him down long enough to guarantee that he doesn’t reach one year of service time would be a blatant grievance.
This DBacks season is more about letting the young talent work through their issues at the MLB level (with a deeper cast of veteran support players), so Moreno is likely to receive a fair amount of playing time to do exactly that.
It’s also still up in the air on where he hits in the lineup; early success could leave him with a larger share of playing time at C and batting fairly high in the order.
He should be a boon for average, but I wouldn’t count on him for too many HRs; Chase is favorable for singles and all other XBHs, though. Based on those things, how you view the potential for his RBI total depends mostly on how you view the chances of the guys ahead of him scoring from 1b on a double (or a reliance on them accruing SBs).
Fingers crossed he starts well.
I think B as well. Although there’s no accounting for clubs manipulating service time, so it could be a short stint into the AAA season too before he’s brought up. I forgot about Higgins already, but he strikes me as simply a depth move.
Aloha folks, I wish Higgins all the best! Hoped he could have stayed in Chicago and backup a Murphy or Vasquez but that didn’t happen. Maybe he’ll get a chance to help out AZ. Mahalo
If he stayed in Chicago I don’t think there would be much of a chance to backup Murphy or Vasquez.