Liam Hicks kept turning a quiet opportunity into a loud one on Friday night, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the first inning and helping the Miami Marlins beat the San Francisco Giants 9-4.
Hicks, acquired by Miami in the Rule 5 Draft in 2024, has become one of the most productive catchers in the game this season. He has five home runs in 25 games, matching the kind of power spike the Marlins could only have hoped for when they brought him in after the Detroit Tigers let him go.
The numbers around Hicks make the start even harder to ignore. Among catchers, he is first in batting average at.317 and first in RBIs with 24. He is second in on-base percentage at.359 and slugging percentage at.537, and third in wRC+ with a 143 mark.
That is a sharp turn from last season, when he hit five home runs in 390 plate appearances. The jump matters for Miami because the Marlins carry the lowest payroll in MLB and have needed production wherever they can find it. Hicks, drafted by the Texas Rangers in the seventh round in 2021, is giving them far more than a roster spot.
What makes the run more striking is how cleanly it has arrived. The Marlins did not buy a marquee bat or trade for a proven middle-order hitter; they found one in the Rule 5 Draft and are now leaning on him in a season where every useful at-bat matters. Hicks has not just held his own. He has looked like one of the best offensive catchers in the league.
For Miami, the question is no longer whether Hicks can fill a job for now. It is how long they can keep getting this version of him before the rest of the league starts treating him like a lineup fixture instead of a pickup.
