Toronto Blue Jays: How the kids stack up against their fathers

Toronto Blue Jays Prospect Pedigree Review

Cavan Biggio and Craig Biggio

Cavan Biggio was drafted in the 5th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2016 amateur draft. The Notre Dame alum would begin professional baseball right after being drafted and would end up slotting in at 9th overall on the Blue Jays top prospect list to being the 2019 season.

Craig Biggio was drafted by Houston Astros in the 1st round, and would play 20 years in the MLB suiting up only for the Astros. He would make his debut in 1988 and would play in 50 games for the Astros, while his first full season would come the following year.

For the comparison, we will use Craig Biggio’s 1989 season for the analysis because of the games played being more similar and this season being deemed Craig’s rookie season.

When it comes to the slash line, Craig Biggio is besting his son in 2 of the 3 categories. Cavan is currently slashing 209/.341/.380 while his father would slash .257/.336/.402. With 19 games left in the season, Cavan could catch his father but would need to put the bat to ball in order to improve his batting average and slugging percentage.

Cavan is beating his father for on base percentage because of how many walks he has this season. Craig had 49 walks in his rookie season, while Cavan currently has 57 with games remaining through September.

Cavan is also currently losing the battle in home runs (12) and RBI’s (35), while also striking out almost twice as much as his father (99). For the season, Craig crushed 13 home runs along with 60 RBI. The younger Biggio does have a chance to pass his father in home runs, but I doubt he will surpass his father’s RBI count.

If Cavan was to play in every game left in the season, he would also fall shy of games played when compared to the elder Biggio (approximately 35-40 games depending on how many Cavan plays in the rest of the season). This mark is a bit flawed, however, as Biggio was not called up to the squad until mid-May while Craig Biggio spent the entire season with the Astros in 1989.

In terms of fielding, Cavan has spent the majority of the season at 2nd base but has seen some action in the outfield as well as 1B. His father Craig played a majority of the 1989 season as the Astros catcher, but like his son, he did spend 5 games in the outfield.

As of right now, Cavan is currently winning the errors matchup against his father Craig. The Blue Jays second baseman has committed just 4 errors this season while also having 164 assists, while his father had 8 errors as a catcher and 1 in the outfield for a total of 9. Craig Biggio also had fewer assists than Cavan, but the position difference can attribute to this inaccuracy.

In terms of who came out in the lead, it appears that Craig Biggio may have the upper hand on his son when it comes to comparing stats. Craig Biggio also won the silver slugger award during the 1989 season for catchers in the National League (Astros were in the NL).

Similar to the Guerrero comparison mentioned earlier, if Cavan Biggio can preform like his father and carve out a hall of fame career, the Toronto Blue Jays will be in good hands with Cavan at second base for the foreseeable future.