Marlins To Trade Liam Hicks To Rays

1:12pm: Adrian Santana and Jacob Kisting round out Miami’s return, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. 1:00pm: The Marlins are trading catcher/first baseman Liam Hicks to the Rays, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Former first-round pick Brayden Taylor is part of a three-player package going to Miami, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. Hicks will hopefully be a long-term answer for Tampa Bay behind the plate. They’ve had trouble finding stability at the position, generally cycling through glove-first players over the past few years. That includes Nick Fortes, whom the Rays acquired from the Marlins at last summer’s deadline. Fortes had coincidentally been pushed off the Miami roster by Hicks’ emergence as a quality Rule 5 pick. Tampa Bay has gotten decent work from Fortes, who is hitting .278/.319/.386 with four homers in 83 games. Backup catcher Hunter Feduccia hasn’t been as effective and could be pushed to Triple-A. It’s also not out of the question the Rays try to capitalize on a down catching market and flip one of Feduccia or Fortes elsewhere in the next four hours. In any case, the 27-year-old Hicks should provide an offensive upgrade for a top-heavy Tampa Bay lineup. He’s hitting .282/.363/.432 with 14 home runs across 409 plate appearances. Hicks has walked at a solid 9.8% clip while striking out just 9.5% of the time, one of the lowest rates in MLB. He’s one of five hitters (min. 400 PAs) with more walks than strikeouts. Hicks has foundational plate discipline skills. He rarely expands the strike zone and is almost impossible to beat within the zone. That should give him a strong on-base floor. It’s more questionable if he can maintain the kind of power production he’s shown this year. Hicks has below-average bat speed and ranks near the bottom of the league in average exit velocity and hard contact rate. He had never hit more than six home runs in an MLB or minor league season before this year. Even if Hicks regresses from a power perspective, the on-base ability should make him one of the better offensive catchers in the league. Miami has one of the sport’s best catching prospects in Joe Mack, which has pushed Hicks more frequently to first base or designated hitter. That’s a much higher bar to clear offensively, which is why the Marlins were open to moving Hicks despite being within a game and a half of a Wild Card spot. More to come. View Comments (50)