What a time to be alive!

The Toronto Blue Jays will promote Cavan Biggio, one of their most interesting – and the second of their big three legacy – prospects, before Friday’s game at Rogers Centre against the San Diego Padres.

Cavan, son of Craig, will now join the recently-promoted Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in Toronto, as the future of this roster begins to take form. It seems a reasonable thing to claim that their fathers were pretty okay at baseball or whatever:

Measuring their success by WAR, Craig Biggio finished with 65.8 career fWAR in 2850 MLB games, good enough for 85th all-time on what is a long list of impressive players to have ever played the game. Vladimir Guerrero was worth 54.6 fWAR in 2147 games, slotting him in at 160th overall.

Oh, and both players are enshrined at Cooperstown.

Needless to say, Cavan Biggio, much like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., has had some lofty expectations placed on him – fairly or not – as he’s developed and moved up the minor league ladder rung by rung. A 5th round pick in 2016, Biggio’s rise to relative prominence came out of seemingly nowhere last season, as he improved his numbers across the board from 2017. Frankly, these improvements were stark:

Most notably among the bevy of improvements you see is the addition of significant power. So, where did it come from? Cavan himself answered this question in detail last July during an interview with Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. First, Cavan identified issues with his timing and bat path. Addressing these aspects of his swing during the offseason between 2017 and 2018, Cavan made the following changes to help him improve his swing mechanics:

First, he lowered his hands in his pre-pitch set-up to keep his bat in the strike zone longer, and second, he added a loading mechanism that allows him to consistently transfer his weight into his swing at the right time.

It worked. In 2018, Biggio enjoyed a very successful season at AA, vaulting himself into the top 10 of virtually every Blue Jays’ prospect list. He was 9th on our list coming into this season, which, with the benefit of hindsight, is certainly light. Our own Alan Tisseman had this to say about Biggio back in February:

Cavan Biggio had a breakout season in 2018, there can be no doubt. At 23, he put up big power numbers, a godly walk rate and stole 20 bases to boot. I was tooting Biggio’s horn all year, but when I sat down to do these rankings, he kept falling further and further down.

New Hampshire is a very cozy hitting environment. Rowdy Tellez experienced this power surge in 2016 and then never recaptured it. It is worth pointing out that, like Tellez, Biggio has never really exhibited plus power prior to playing with the Fisher Cats. He also strikes out a fair amount. There could have been a philosophical change in his hitting style to sell out for more power, but we’ll need to see how things play out in 2019.

That being said, Biggio is nearly major league ready and he will have some defensive utility. He will likely contribute as soon as next season, so we won’t have long to wait to see what he can do.

Alan was correct to be a little bit skeptical of the sudden power surge, especially at Double-A New Hampshire – a renowned hitter’s paradise. But so far in 2019 at AAA Buffalo, Biggio has maintained the improvements of 2018 and has actually been even better:

Those walk and strikeout rates absolutely stand out. I don’t know if you’ve watched many Blue Jays games this season, but this team has exhibited a complete lack of patience at the plate thus far. It’s been a team comprised of mostly free swingers, hacking and slashing at seemingly everything thrown their way. The team as a whole currently sits 5th-worst in baseball with a 25.2 K% and 10th-worst with an 8.2 BB%. The arrival of Biggio should give the Blue Jays a sorely needed injection of patience and a pair of keen eyes at the plate, which should subsequently lead to better at-bats and, finally, more watchable baseball.

Despite the futility of the current team, if you squint really hard, you can see the beginnings of what could be an exciting future forming on the Blue Jays’ roster. Along with Biggio, Danny Jansen, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Randal Grichuk are already here and should be key instruments to this team’s future success.

There may be a couple of notable pieces from the pile, as well – Rowdy Tellez, Brandon Drury, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Billy McKinney, Teoscar Hernandez, etc. This group has experienced a few ups and many downs, though I’ll admit that Rowdy Tellez has so far surpassed my expectations. If any of these guys can develop into viable major leaguers or, better, average MLB players, I’m confident the front office would be happy with that outcome. Personally, I would say that it’s almost certainly needed or it likely prolongs the rebuild. Of course, having a possible generational talent in Vladito certainly paints things a little rosier.

Justin Smoak, the man with the expiring contract, has enjoyed another quality season, though it’s difficult to say if the Blue Jays opt to trade him in the coming months instead of offering him an extension. Honestly, I can’t imagine him fetching much in trade, but he’s turning 33 later this year and it’s likely his best years will be behind him by the time this team is ready to compete perennially for the playoffs.

We haven’t even touched on the pitching staff, which has been a pleasant surprise this season. Marcus Stroman has been excellent, Aaron Sanchez has been Aaron Sanchez – teasing tantalizing brilliance for short spurts but has been plagued by inconsistency. Matt Shoemaker was off to a great start to the season before stumbling awkwardly on the basepaths during a rundown and ultimately succumbing to season-ending knee surgery. Trent Thornton, acquired in the Aledmys Diaz trade, has looked very capable as a major-league starter to date. And Ryan Borucki will be back eventually.

It will be interesting to see whether the Jays decide to extend or trade Stroman, Sanchez, and elite save collector Ken Giles in the coming months. These moves could very well define this rebuild and the tenure of the current front office.

Prospects Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Nate Pearson, and Patrick Murphy are currently and inevitably carving out their own path to Toronto and should all arrive within the coming couple of seasons. If not for injury, Bo Bichette may have been promoted alongside Biggio, but instead Bichette has spent the last month recovering from a broken hand sustained on April 22. He’s expected back in the next two to three weeks, so there’s a small chance he sees Toronto before the season is out.

Lost in all of this Biggio excitement is that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. will also be recalled from AAA Buffalo ahead of Friday’s series opener. Obviously, this news comes with considerably less fanfare – Gurriel Jr. already made his MLB debut last season and has struggled at both the MLB and AAA levels for the majority of this season, albeit in a small sample.

With the team struggling as it has, there have been few things to get excited about in 2019. The arrival of Guerrero Jr. is easily the sexiest thing to happen to the Blue Jays since the 2016 playoffs, so it’s been tough. While Biggio’s promotion is not as sexy as Vlad Jr.’s, you should still care about this if you’re a Blue Jays fan.

Make no mistake, Cavan Biggio is fully expected to be a key component – dare I say, a core piece – of this roster over the next seven years or so. What he does at the major league level for the rest of this season will remain to be seen, but there is unquestionable reason for optimism with the young player.