FORMER C’S – WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

CANADIANS: 2016 CURRENTLY: TORONTO BLUE JAYS

The road to the Majors is littered with the sons, grandsons, nephews and cousins of former big leaguers. They pick up the family business, find varying levels of success but never make it to the highest level as they become another “what could have been?” with a recognizable last name. CAVAN BIGGIO

That pressure has been on Cavan Biggio – son of Hall of Famer Craig – since long before he began his professional career when he suited up for the Canadians in the summer of 2016. He grew up in the clubhouse during the Killer Bs era in Houston, idolizing Jeff Bagwell over his own father. Cavan took to the game, developed his talents and eventually broke into the college ranks with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. While in school, he played in all 167 games with 166 starts in three years, slashed .272/.406/.425 with 164 hits, 34 doubles, seven triples, 15 homers, 70 RBI, 257 total bases, 125 walks, 33 stolen bases and 117 runs scored. Biggio ranks eighth in school history in walks, had 42 multi-hit games and 8 multi-RBI games. The Blue Jays selected him with their fifthround pick (162nd overall) in 2016 and he reported to Vancouver, where he would play 53 games to the tune of a .282 average with 11 doubles, three triples, 24 runs scored, 21 RBI, 29 walks and 28 strikeouts. Biggio finished that season with Low-A Lansing. He returned to action in 2017 with a promotion to High-A Dunedin and played in 127 games, though his average dipped to .233. Biggio did begin to find his power stroke; he cracked five homers and drove in 60 runs for the D-Jays, a preview of what was to come the following season. 2018 was a career year for Cavan. He made the Double-A New Hampshire roster out of Spring Training and joined the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette under the tutelage of former C’s manager John Schneider on a team that took the Eastern League by storm. The Fisher Cats would go on to win the league championship by sweeping the postseason and Biggio was named league MVP after tying a ‘Cats single-season franchise record with 26 homers (he hit his 27th of the year in the playoffs). He hit .252, with 23 doubles and five triples, drove in 99 runs, scored 80 times and worked 100 walks. Biggio started 2019 in Triple-A and was with Buffalo for six weeks before he was called up to Toronto on May 24, 2019 to make his MLB debut. He hit his first big league homer on May 26 as part of a threehit day against the San Diego Padres. Since then, Cavan has amassed a .231 career average in 869 MLB at-bats as of this writing.