The Jays’ Cavan Biggio is back, hoping something good can come from a pain in the neck

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This article was published 11/06/2021 (1619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Blue Jays welcomed a big piece of their everyday lineup back into the fold Friday night and, no, it wasn’t George Springer. But it was still someone who has the potential to become a difference maker.

Cavan Biggio was activated from the injured list prior to the series opener against the Red Sox. The guy who was once billed as the ideal leadoff man is now settling into the bottom half of the lineup following an almost three-week absence with a neck injury.

The Jays, who have the American League’s sixth-ranked offence, aren’t struggling to score these days but, with a depleted bullpen and a still questionable starting rotation, they need all the runs they can get. Biggio’s return should only help.

That might seem like an odd statement to make about a guy who was hitting .205 at the time of his injury. But while Biggio got off to a poor start and struggled for most of the seven weeks he was on the active roster, he’s much better than the numbers indicate. He just needs a bit of time to show it.

Players obviously never want to get hurt, but every now and then a silver lining can be found in a trip to the injured list. It provides a bit of a mental breather, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. That could be exactly what Biggio needed.

“He’s a grinder,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said late Friday afternoon. “If you can get a mental break, he was hurt, but that can also help him out, to relax a little bit, to get some at-bats and now come back and start fresh again.”

Biggio likely will never be a guy who hits for a high average. He hit just .234 in his rookie season and .250 during last year’s abbreviated schedule. Neither number looks all that impressive, but that’s also not where the value in Biggio’s bat can be found.

The 26-year-old works counts as good as anyone in baseball. He led all Jays hitters with a .375 on-base percentage in 2020. The year before, he had the highest OBP of anyone on the roster with more than three at-bats. He’s a pest in the box; even when Biggio doesn’t get on base, he’s wearing opposing pitchers down for everyone else.

Those are characteristics the Jays don’t have a lot of in their current lineup. Despite Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drawing the 11th-most walks in the majors, the Jays rank 23rd overall as a team. They also haven’t been getting much production out of the bottom half of the batting order. This a top-heavy lineup. Getting Biggio back, and potentially having Springer return next week, should go a long way in lengthening everything out.

The important thing right now is that Biggio is healthy and that’s something he couldn’t say for the two weeks prior to going on the IL. The neck had been bothering him for awhile and, after he tried to play through the discomfort, Biggio and the team decided the only thing that would make it better was extended rest.

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That doesn’t mean Biggio was looking forward to the absence. He felt, after the slow start, that his approach was starting to improve around the same time the neck became an issue. Through his first 25 games of the season, Biggio was batting .179 with a .571 OPS. Over his final 14, he hit .256 with a .745 OPS, numbers more in line with his career norms.

“From a baseball standpoint, I felt like that last road trip, that series against the Phillies, I started to feel pretty good at the plate offensively,” said Biggio, who hit eighth in his return to the lineup. “I was putting some pretty consistent at-bats together … I’ve been in slumps before. There’s only one way out of it and that’s to work and hit through it. When I couldn’t do that, there was a bit of a mental break with that.”

Another injury could be just around the corner, but the Jays appear days away from having their regular lineup back to full strength, except for starting catcher Danny Jansen, who is currently on the IL with a strained hamstring. Springer is expected to begin a rehab assignment soon and it’s possible he will return at some point next week.

That’s great news for a team that could use a spark as it wraps up a difficult part of its schedule. After the four-game series in Boston, followed by three games against the Yankees, the quality of opponents drops dramatically. Following the conclusion of the New York series, 44 of Toronto’s remaining games will come against teams with records currently below .500, with only 23 against teams above. If there’s a time to go on a run, two series later this month against the lowly Orioles will be a good place to start.

Biggio will need to make an impact during that stretch. One of the biggest strengths of the Jays lineup was supposed to be its depth. If the 26-year-old infielder gets his season back on track, that can still happen.