Behind Cavan Biggio’s turnaround at the plate

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It all happened quietly, but Cavan Biggio is part of the Blue Jays’ success again.

That has a different definition for every player, and the Blue Jays haven’t needed Biggio to be Shohei Ohtani. They’ve just needed him to be himself — or at least a version of himself closer to what we saw in 2019 and ‘20.

It’s taken a while. Biggio got off a dreadful start, posting a .129 average and a .424 OPS through his first 25 games. He opened the season without regular playing time, but that performance ensured it would be even less consistent.

Then Biggio transformed himself at the plate.

Since May 21 — which we’ll use as an arbitrary cutoff and “low point” in his season — Biggio is batting .276 with a .382 on-base percentage and an .845 OPS. Perhaps we’re at a point where Biggio’s career numbers finally paint an accurate picture of who he is, with a relatively low average but impressive ability to reach base and provide a bit of pop.

“It’s about controlling the zone and getting on base,” said manager John Schneider. “Even over the last couple of weeks, he’s hitting balls to left-center in Cleveland, there’s two-strike hits and he’s trying to be a bit more direct to the ball to give himself more of a chance to cover the zone. It’s been a deliberate adjustment he’s made and it’s a credit to him.”

Schneider knows Biggio as well as anyone. The two go back to the Minor Leagues together, and there’s a reason that even at the deepest levels of Biggio’s struggles, Schneider made it clear that he would not give up on his player.

It’s about Biggio’s brain, which is his greatest gift as a player, and a cerebral approach that has been emerging.

“He’s always been that way. He’s always been interested in trying to figure out different ways to do it,” Schneider said. “He’s always been very convicted in the way he does things. It’s a good combo to have.”

What’s changed, though?

Each season, you hear hundreds of tales about how a swing change or approach change has unlocked something. Spring Training is fuelled by those stories alone. Few players can articulate what they’ve actually changed as well as Biggio, though, and when you hear him break it down, it adds some conviction.

Biggio has worked to “swing down” more, which sounds counterintuitive in an era of baseball obsessed with hitting the ball in the air. He recognized early that his attempts to lift the ball had him pulling his bat away from the zone too quickly. The balance was all off.

“I’ve always been a guy who hits a lot of fly balls, especially when I’m not really using the whole field,” Biggio said. “Swinging down on it, keeping my head on it and being able to use the whole field has been able to help me cover the whole zone. That gives me a ton of confidence.”

This started back in Spring Training, when Biggio attached himself to Victor Martinez. V-Mart has been with the organization as a special assistant and had an immediate impact on a handful of the club’s young hitters, Biggio included.

“There was a lot of time in the cages before the games and during the games. There was a lot of machine work,” Biggio said. “Hitting coach Hunter Mense was always there for me, too. It’s benefited me a lot, but not all of the credit goes to me. Victor and Hunter, they’ve helped me a lot.”

Biggio’s career slash line now sits at .227/.342/.393 (.735 OPS). The Blue Jays’ coaching staff is quick to praise him as one of the club’s better baserunners and he plays multiple positions. It feels like expectations have been properly reset on Biggio, and with this recent run, he’s meeting them.

He’s not the star of the show, but playing like this, Biggio can be an important piece of a competitive club year in, year out.