Dodgers acquire Biggio in trade with Blue Jays
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired super-utility man Cavan Biggio in a trade with Toronto, adding the veteran after the Blue Jays designated him for assignment last week.
In the deal, the Blue Jays received right-handed reliever Braydon Fisher, who has split his time this season between Double-A and Triple-A.
Biggio was in the lineup for the Dodgers’ home game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night, playing third base and batting ninth. He finished 1-for-3 and committed an error in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss.
“To have a team like the Dodgers come and pick me up after my time in Toronto, where I spent so many years with so many relationships there, and playing against this team about a month and a half ago, obviously very special and very fortunate and grateful to be here,” he said.
The Dodgers optioned outfielder Miguel Vargas to Triple-A Oklahoma City. He hit .250 with three doubles, one home run and four RBIs in eight games.
Biggio, 29, was taken off the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster last week after struggling over the first third of the season, hitting .200/.323/.291 with two home runs in 131 plate appearances for Toronto, which at 33-34 occupies third place in the American League East.
“A lot of emotions that I sat and went through and processed,” he said. “I put myself in a good position to make my next step forward being here so I’m excited about it.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said: “I think it’s good for Cavan. I was pretty sure he’d land on his feet. It’s tough to have him leave.”
Biggio has spent most of his career at second base but has played first, third and right field as well this season. Biggio will join a Dodgers team that owns a 7½-game lead in the National League West but has gotten minimal offensive production from Chris Taylor, Gavin Lux and Kiké Hernández and is missing third baseman Max Muncy, who’s on the injured list with a strained oblique.
“I just want to be a good piece for this team and you know, hopefully be the last team standing at the end of the year,” Biggio said.
Biggio debuted in 2019 and was one of three sons of longtime major leaguers, along with infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette, who was expected to serve as the core for an ascendant Blue Jays team. He hit 16 home runs in 100 games his rookie season and followed in the COVID-shortened 2020 year with a .375 on-base percentage, looking like a foundational element at second base.
Injuries limited Biggio in the years after, and he lost playing time this season to Davis Schneider and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. With the Blue Jays struggling offensively, they DFA’d him to make room for Spencer Horwitz, who has started all four games at second since his recall. Biggio has one season of club control beyond this year and will be eligible for free agency after 2025.
Biggio’s father, Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, had 3,060 hits in 20 seasons with the Houston Astros. The younger Biggio recalled one visit to Dodger Stadium with his dad.
“I don’t think I was allowed on the field, but I remember having a Dodger Dog or two,” he said. “The only thing I remember Shawn Green was on the team.”
In front of his father Wednesday night, the younger Biggio singled leading off the fifth for his first hit with the Dodgers.
He also showed his glove work early. He started a double play that got the first two outs of the first inning. He prevented a potential double down the line by Wyatt Langford in the second, making a long throw to first that Langford barely beat out. Biggio was charged with an error in the fifth when he bobbled a ball hit by Marcus Semien.
Fisher, 23, was a fourth-round pick in 2018 and has struck out 30 hitters and walked 15 in 19 innings while posting a 5.68 ERA this season. He has been with the Dodgers for five seasons, tossing a combined 228⅔ innings in 134 games (including 12 starts) and an 18-14 mark with a 4.53 ERA.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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