Blue Jays: After a rough season, what will 2022 bring for Cavan Biggio?

If it could go wrong for Cavan Biggio in 2021, it has. That said, there will still be a role with the Blue Jays for the 26 year old next season, even if we’re not exactly sure what it’ll look like at the moment.

The Houston native had been working his way back from neck and back issues that landed him on the Injured List, and unfortunately he’s now sidelined with a new injury. It was announced on Wednesday that he has a Grade 1 UCL sprain of his left elbow, and he’s now considered “week to week”. Hopefully he can make it back at some point and finish the season on a more positive note, but with 37 games left on the schedule it’s possible we may not see him again in the big leagues this year.

Whether he makes it back or not, the Blue Jays will have some decisions to make over the winter, and how much Ross Atkins and his team still believe in Biggio could play a fairly significant factor. As a player with defensive flexibility, the Jays used that to their advantage by moving him to third base after they signed Marcus Semien last offseason, but unfortunately that decision didn’t go so well from Biggio’s end of things.

With that in mind, will the Blue Jays enter next season with Biggio penciled in at third base again? In order to answer that, the bigger question is whether or not the Jays can re-sign Semien, if they have plans to sign another premium free agent infielder, or maybe even make a trade.

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If the Blue Jays are able to sign Semien to an extension or find another high-end replacement, then Biggio may enter the 2022 campaign in a similar situation to this year. Having said that, he’ll have more competition at the hot corner this time around, and he’d likely have to win the job in a competition with guys like Santiago Espinal and Kevin Smith, assuming both are still in the mix next spring.

On the other hand, if Semien walks and the Blue Jays don’t sign someone like Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, or one of the other high-priced potential free agents, then I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see them move Biggio back to second base on a fairly full-time basis. I don’t know that going back to his old position would fix his issues as a hitter, but we’ve seen how others have struggled on offence when they were also having defensive difficulties. That’s why Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is now an outfielder, and part of the reason Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ended up at first base.

It’s also possible that the Blue Jays prefer to have Biggio on the roster as the super-utility player that we’ve heard about for several years. Admittedly he’s not a plus-defender when he shifts around the diamond, but he’s at least serviceable at second, third, and first base, and he’s a capable corner outfielder as well. With a left-handed bat on a team full of righties, that brings some value too, assuming he can find the level of production he showed during his first two seasons in the big leagues.

While I understand that some folks have written him off as a central member of the core of this team, I think we have to keep in mind that he’s been injured for most of this season. He may not be at the same level as Vlad Jr. or Bo Bichette, who he often joined in team promos last season, but I still believe he can be a very useful player to have around when he’s healthy.

Assuming he can show up to camp at 100% as far as he injury issues go, I’m confident that we’ll see a lot better results from Biggio with a clean slate in 2022. Whether that’s at second base, as a utility player, or back in a competition at third base, I’m willing to bet the Blue Jays plan to keep him very much in the mix. It just might be a while before we find out where he’s going to fit.