The Royals optioned infielder Cavan Biggio to the minor leagues following the club’s game against the Twins today, according to a report from Anne Rogers of MLB.com. As a player with five years of service time, Biggio has the ability to refuse an optional assignment, and Rogers reports that he’ll be able to decide between accepting the optional assignment or electing free agency in the coming days. It’s unclear what the corresponding move for Biggio’s departure from the active roster will be.
It’s unusual to see a player consent to an optional assignment when they have the requisite service time necessary to reject one. That’s not to say it’s completely unheard of, with veteran first baseman Jose Abreu’s decision to consent to being optioned after struggling badly with the Astros early last year standing out as one of the more memorable recent examples, but it would hardly be a surprise if Biggio decided to elect free agency rather than stick with the Royals. On the other hand, Biggio may be limited to exclusively minor league deals in free agency and would therefore lose the benefits of being on the 40-man roster that he would retain should he accept an optional assignment from the Royals.
Son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio and a veteran of seven MLB seasons in his own right, the younger Biggio got off to a hot start early in his career with a .240/.368/.430 slash line (good for a wRC+ of 118) across his first two seasons in the majors. That was enough to earn him down-ballot Rookie of the Year consideration in the AL during the 2019 season and make him the club’s on-paper everyday third baseman headed into the 2021 season. Unfortunately, things started to unravel from there. Biggio hit just .224/.322/.356 with a wRC+ of 84 that eventually got him pushed into a part-time role that year. He wouldn’t recapture his everyday job with the Blue Jays ever again, although his .220/.330/.361 (100 wRC+) performance over the next two seasons was enough to make him a viable bench player in a utility role.
While Biggio seemed to have carved out a solid part-time role for himself with Toronto, that changed during the 2024 campaign. He struggled badly across 44 games with the club, hitting just .200/.323/.291 with a wRC+ of 86, and that step backwards in conjunction with the Blue Jays’ losing record was enough to convince Toronto brass to pull the plug on a player who was once considered to be part of their core alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. Biggio spent the rest of the season bouncing between the Dodgers, Giants, and Braves organizations and finished the year with a .197/.314/.303 (84 wRC+) slash line in the big leagues across 78 games.
Biggio elected free agency back in November after being cut loose by the Braves and eventually caught on with the Royals on a minor league deal back in January. He showed out enough in Spring Training to make the club’s Opening Day roster but has performed poorly in a part-time role during the regular season with a slash line of just .176/.300/.250. His 61 wRC+ this year is the 35th-worst figure in the majors among players with at least 80 plate appearances, and for a Royals club that’s tied for third from the bottom in the majors in runs scored his bat is clearly not producing enough to justify his roster spot.
MJ Melendez, Joey Wiemer, Tyler Gentry, and Tyler Tolbert are all on the 40-man roster already as potential replacements for Biggio on the active roster. Anyone else would require selecting a contract to the roster, though it should be noted that the Royals have space on their 40-man so no corresponding move would be necessary to make that sort of addition. Rogers notes that outfielder John Rave was out of the lineup at Triple-A Omaha today, potentially suggesting he could be an option to be called up to the majors, while Nelson Velazquez, Nick Pratto, and Jordan Groshans are all non-roster players with big league experience who could theoretically be called upon.
Son of a Hall of Famer who hasn’t hit his body weight since 2023 (and that was just barely over) ought to really consider accepting the assignment to AAA
To be fair that’s mostly cause hes about a 130 pound soaking wet
The Royals should probably just release every player mentioned in the article and start over. No good options there.
Rave has done very well this season
I see that. But he’s 27 years old on his go around at AAA. Probably not much undiscovered talent there.
Royals had another 27 year old who made his MLB debut and turned out to be a solid player, at least for the Royals. I’m talking about Whit Merrifield.
Considering that his career is going down hill, he had his cup of coffee in major. He is gonna be end up signing minor league contract going forward
They need to bring up Cam Devaney and give him a try he has earned it.
The Royals offense is pretty awful. It’s too bad because their pitching (with everyone healthy) is quite good. Time to call up Jac Caglianone.
think he’s looking for the major league record for being reassigned or dfa’d by every mlb team
Ohearn and Laureano would help KC out tremendously.
what pitcher are you sending to Orioles in return?
@zantigm
Ummm, Cavan Biggio…
Biggio has 0!!! Trade value, less than a bag of baseballs!
Depending on how he looks in his rehab starts which began yesterday on Sunday, and he should be back sometime in June, if I were the royals I’d trade Kyle wright… He hasn’t given the royals any type of value thus far, and you could turn him and a filler or two into a solid outfielder that they’ve desperately needed! I mean they’ve done well without him, and I doubt he’d be the difference maker in a super competitive and tight AL East, but an actual decent hitting outfielder would definitely help them out a lot more! As for the orioles why not try to get a pitcher, who is very talented, and comes back pitching strong, could be a good addition for next year’s rotation, especially since the orioles are not going anywhere this year!
Also they didn’t give up any real player value to aquire him from the braves either! The only thing they’ve invested in him is keeping him on the payroll via a very cheap salary through arbitration, and the oversight of his recovery from shoulder surgery! They could end up coming out with way more value than they gave up for him by trading for a decent outfielder that they desperately need! I’d do it, the only question is would the orioles? Or any other team for that matter. I guess time will only tell if he comes out of his rehab pitching good or not!
Why would anyone trade a “solid outfielder” for a pitcher that’s been hurt for two years and is still rehabbing? Get out of here with that
Get out of here with your non ability to read! I said if he comes out pitching strong and he looks good! I also said a filler or 2 and if you are talking about a rental outfielder, you won’t get much value anyways unless you’re a superstar. I’m not changing my opinion and I’m not getting out of here! Why don’t you pick up a book and learn how to read?
KC gave up on O’Hearn before.
He peaked his rookie season and outside of drawing a decent amount of walks, he doesn’t do anything to justify being an everyday player.
I wouldn’t even want him on the roster as a defensive replacement.
Might be an upgrade for the Padres left field situation.
LMFAO!
Only one reason this guy is still around, his name! Give it up, you ain’t your daddy!🤣
Had a solid enough big league career certainly wasn’t nepotism.
Grab some d bol and winsrol cavan and wear a couple sizes bigger jersey kid
Wow .220/.330/.360 is league average, at that time? Will speeding up a game of bad hitting really save it, Robbie?
Back in the preseason of 2022, many Toronto fans on twitter thought that Biggio and Jordan Groshans would be two main pieces for them to trade to Cleveland for Jose Ramirez. Now in 2025, both are in the minors. Just shows how bad some twitter GMs can be.
I very much doubt ‘many’ fans were saying this but Groshans was a top 100 prospect at the time, ranked ahead of Duran, Gore and McLain.
Biggio, Groshans, Nate Pearson, and Kirk was a common offer posted back at the time. Now three are no longer in the majors or with the Blue Jays. organization.
Yes, it’s a tough sport. Very often top or good prospects flame out, this is why teams are willing to trade them to begin with
A team in desperate need of some offense, has two open 40-man spots, and just optioned a veteran who could make it three.
Also, said team just happens to have three everyday players on their AAA team batting over .300, who would need to be added to the 40-man.
Jac time…
Yanks should take a flyer on him .. could use infield depth
Getting every day at bat in AAA can’t be a bad thing, unless of course ego interferes