Liam Hicks was a a catcher and a goalie growing up in Toronto. Now he’s going to the World Series

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Growing up in Toronto, Liam Hicks had a thing for the hometown Blue Jays and was a big Roy Halladay and Josh Donaldson guy when he was able to make it to the Rogers Centre for games.

He also had a thing for masks.

In his minor hockey days, Hicks was a goalie; in baseball, the position of choice was catcher. Fortunately for the Tampa Bay Rays, the latter prevailed and the 27-year-old backstop is headed for the World Series, which gets underway in Milwaukee on Friday in a best-of-seven showdown with the Brewers.

A trade deadline acquisition by the upside-savvy Rays, Hicks has flourished in his new baseball home while playing a big, boosting role in his new team, locking down the top seed in the American League, then advancing through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Fitting, perhaps, that a Toronto kid, who worked at Jays camps in his youth, made the play to officially end his hometown team’s reign as AL champs, chasing down a foul ball for the final out of the Rays’ ALCS victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Monday.

What a rush it’s been for a Canadian kid whose path to the big leagues wasn’t exactly a straight line.

“It’s been great. Pretty much exactly how you would have drawn it up once I got traded,” Hicks said during a press conference earlier in the post-season. “I knew that this team was at the top of the division. So being able to see the playoffs in sight, then actually being able to go out, execute, help the team win … it’s been great.

“The guys in the clubhouse have been super welcoming, so that’s been even better.”

Winding road to the big leagues

A highly touted youngster in the Toronto Mets organization, Hicks always was seen to have big-league potential. Those skills propelled him to a college career at Arkansas State and while there was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 9th round of the 2021 draft.

His path was largely stymied in his first MLB organization, however, as Hicks never advanced beyond double A. When the Rangers were lukewarm to his potential and left him unprotected, the Florida Marlins scooped up Hicks in the 2024 Rule 5 draft, giving him the opportunity he needed elsewhere.

Since then, he hasn’t looked back.

In his 101 games prior to the August 3 trade deadline, Hicks was hitting .282 across the state in Miami with 14 home runs and 60 RBI. When the Marlins went all in on a rebuild and the Rays went the opposite direction, three Tampa Bay prospects went the other way and the AL East leaders got one of the pieces they felt could take them to the World Series.

For Hicks, opportunity met excitement and suddenly he’s on a stage that two years ago he could have barely imagined.

“Definitely was a little bit nervous when I first got traded, about the transition and figuring out how to do that on the fly, especially in a playoff race,” Hicks said. “But they’ve made it super easy.”

How different have Rays been for Hicks?

For one, he started with exponentially more autonomy and responsibility than he had with the Marlins, where pitch selection was essentially coming from the dugout.

“We weren’t even calling pitches in Miami, so that made (the transition) even a little tougher,” Hicks said in his ALCS media availability. “But the staff and the players have been great here. I was wondering how that was going to go, whether it would be easy to get right back into it.”

The Rays, who thrive on unearthing smart players with potential to fit into their data-driven, attention-to-detail system, obviously saw something in Hicks as they were looking for an upgrade at catcher.

The results over 2.5 months have been terrific.

“Liam got up to speed really quick,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said at a media availability during the ALCS. “He was catching everybody really quick. There was a lot that was poured into helping Liam get off the ground running.

“And then Liam has done an incredible job after that.”

And now it’s on to the World Series

It’s been an incredible season for Hicks on so many levels. After establishing himself as an everyday big league backstop in Miami, he made his first visit to Toronto as a pro back in May, facing the Jays in front of family and friends.

The season kept on getting better, taking him all the way to the pinnacle of the sport, a Fall Classic showdown between two franchises who have never won a World Series.

“Super grateful,” Hicks said at his press conference during the ALDS series against the Yankees. “I loved being in Miami, so nothing but good things to say about them.

“But being able to play in the playoffs is obviously something pretty special. Being able to do it with a club like this … I’ve said it a bunch: They’ve made me feel like I’ve been a part of this team for so much longer than it’s been.

“It’s just such a special group and so fun to be part of them.”

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