MLB · C · Tampa Bay Rays
Liam Hicks
B/T L/R · 5' 9" · 185 lb · born Toronto, ON, Canada · age 27 · draft 2021 rd 9 · played C 110, 1B 56, DH 42 · MLB debut 2025-03-28
Last 14 days (through 2026-08-28): 10 G · .310 AVG · 1 HR · 2 RBI · .865 OPS
493 plate appearances scored this season His season card →
Scout’s note
A Toronto-born catcher taken in the ninth round, Hicks has hit .267 with a .758 OPS across 228 big-league games; the last two weeks have been quiet — three games, no home runs, two runs driven in.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
Where he stands
throughAgainst the 382 qualified major-league hitters — 100+ balls in play this season, the same field the boards are chosen out of. Right is better on every row.
- EV95102.69
- Deserved (xVal)0.31413
- Got (aVal)0.35046
- Luck gap (park-adjusted)flipped0.0418
today · 30 days ago, against the 340 men who qualified then · the tick is the midpoint · the number at the right is the percentile, the number beside it the measurement itself.
What he’s paid
Pre-arbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $0.23Mest
- Tax hit
- $0.23M
- Service time
- 1 yr 0 d
- Options left
- 3 / 3
The deal 1 year $0.8M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$790,000 (26)
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Regime read from his service time, not from the sheet — it does not project him past this season. Super Two eligibility is the top 22% of a class and can move this line in a way service time alone cannot see.
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Tampa Bay Rays.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $0.79M
- Guaranteed
- $0.79M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Pre-Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Minimum | Minimum | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Liam Hicks
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Liam Hicks cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
The Bureau on Liam Hicks
The scouting press, in their own words
The Liam Hicks move is fun because it's the Rays leaning into the thing they already do better then any team with one of the guys who does it best. Rays are the only team with a contact rate above 80%. Hicks is at 90% (4th in MLB). Team K% is 19.2% (#1 in MLB). Hicks is at 9.5%.
Umpire favor
+0.2 net runs over 59 graded games — an even shake from the zone this season.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →