John

Hicks

Hicks was with the Phillies this season as emergency catching depth at Triple-A Lehigh Valley and hasn’t appeared in the majors since the 2021 campaign. The 33-year-old veteran backstop might be able to latch on somewhere else as extra organizational depth to close out the year.

It appears that Daulton Guthrie and Jake Cave have edged out Kingery and Kody Clemens for the final two spots on the Phillies’ bench to open the regular season.

The deal presumably includes an option to spring training. Hicks, 33, spent the 2022 season with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate and put up 20 homers with an .823 OPS over 95 games. He’s appeared in just 10 games in the majors since 2019 and is mostly organizational depth at this point.

Rodriguez is an extremely hard-throwing right-hander that was believed to be in the mix for a high-leverage role at the backend of the Cubs bullpen, but he’ll start the year at Triple-A instead. The 25-year-old posted a 1.50 WHIP over 2 2/3 scoreless innings during Cactus League play.

Hicks came off the bench and supplied exactly half of the Cubs’ four hits in the seven-inning affair. The 32-year-old veteran backstop socked four homers in 10 games last year with the Rangers, but is a long shot to make the Cubs’ Opening Day roster as a backup to Willson Contreras.

Hicks launched four homers in a brief 10-game stint with the Rangers last season and wound up spending the majority of the 2021 campaign at Triple-A Round Rock. The 32-year-old veteran backstop has appeared in 264 games at the big-league level since 2015 and will provide the Cubs with some additional catching depth entering the 2022 season.

The 31-year-old backstop passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment last week. Hicks hit .258/.258/.677 with four homers and seven RBI in 31 plate appearances with the Rangers. He’ll continue to serve as organizational catching depth.

Hicks cranked four homers in 10 games, but he wasn’t going to play much with Jose Trevino back and the Rangers wanted to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Hicks supplied some early offense for the Rangers with an RBI double to center field off rookie right-hander Matt Manning in the second inning. It was his lone hit in four at-bats in the low-scoring affair. The 31-year-old backstop has cooled off considerably after socking four homers in a four-game span earlier this month.

Hicks has made three starts for the Rangers and has homered in each of them, popping two in his last start on Saturday. He’s the first player in franchise history with four long balls in his first four games with the team. Hicks has always had decent pop for a catcher and could churn out some two-catcher league value if he plays enough. That’s unlikely to happen over the long haul, though.