Arkansas State Professional Athletes

Liam Hicks Is Exactly What Tampa Needed

The trade grades are in, and Arkansas State alumnus Liam Hicks is passing with flying colors.

A month after the Tampa Bay Rays acquired the catcher, Sports Illustrated revisited the deal — and the verdict was glowing. Hicks has been described as "everything the Rays needed and more," providing a genuine offensive jolt to a club grinding through the final weeks of the season. For a franchise that bet on him at the deadline, the return has been hard to argue with.

The numbers back it up. Hicks hit the week of Aug. 30–Sep. 5 running hot. He picked up a hit in Sunday's contest against the Padres, followed it with a 2-for-? outing with an RBI against the Mets on Monday, and kept the momentum rolling through the week. By Saturday against the Rangers — a 7-6 Rays win — Hicks finished the week sitting at .287/.289, a mark that would rank as a strong average for any catcher in baseball, let alone a trade-deadline acquisition expected to stabilize a lineup on the fly.

What makes Hicks's run notable isn't just the consistency — it's the context. Catchers who change organizations mid-season often need weeks to acclimate to a new pitching staff while also producing offensively. Hicks has done both, and the Rays' stretch-run fortunes have tracked alongside his output. The SI re-grade piece framed the acquisition as a clear win for Tampa Bay's front office, and the week-by-week box scores have only reinforced that assessment.

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Tyler Zuber Navigates a Mixed Week in Miami

On the other side of the ledger, fellow Red Wolf alum Tyler Zuber had a more uneven stretch for the Miami Marlins out of the bullpen.

Zuber opened the week on a strong note, tossing 1.1 innings against the Nationals on Aug. 31 with three strikeouts while allowing just one earned run — the kind of high-leverage relief work that keeps ERA respectable. He followed with a clean one-inning outing against the Royals on Tuesday, and his ERA sat at 3.98 heading into the back half of the week.

Things got bumpy on Thursday. Zuber allowed two earned runs in just a third of an inning against the Royals, a rough blip that pushed his ERA to 4.50. He bounced back Saturday against the Cubs — one full inning, two strikeouts, no damage — bringing his ERA back down to 4.36 by week's end.

For a Marlins team not in the thick of a playoff race, Zuber's role as a bullpen piece still offers real value, and his strikeout ability remains evident. But the volatility of short-relief work was on full display this week: one bad outing can move the needle fast.

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The bottom line: Arkansas State has two active MLB alumni making their marks in September, one of them turning heads at the league level. Hicks's emergence as a deadline steal for the Rays is the marquee story, and it's one that figures to keep getting written as Tampa Bay pushes toward the postseason.

Arkansas State has two representatives grinding through the dog days of August in the major leagues, and at least one of them is making it count in a big way.

Liam Hicks, C — Tampa Bay Rays

Liam Hicks is having himself a summer. The Toronto native and Arkansas State alum is batting .283 through the thick of the 2026 season, and this past week he gave Rays fans plenty to cheer about — going deep on Saturday, August 22 against the Orioles while adding a run and an RBI to go with his hit. It was the kind of multi-faceted contribution that has defined his 2026 campaign.

The week wasn't just one flash, either. Hicks posted two hits in Wednesday's matchup against the Blue Jays, scoring a run, and added another hit and a run scored on Tuesday in the same series. His consistency at the plate has been a quiet story in Tampa Bay's lineup — one that Sportsnet made loud this week, featuring a segment with Shi Davidi on how Hicks has grown into a "very valuable piece" for the Rays. For a catcher to command that kind of feature coverage during a pennant-race August, the development is real.

Hitting .283 as a catcher — a position historically taxing on offensive production — is no small achievement. Hicks has managed to stay hot across a stretch that included games against Baltimore and Toronto, two AL East opponents with plenty of postseason ambition of their own.

Tyler Zuber, P — Miami Marlins

The other Red Wolf in the bigs, reliever Tyler Zuber, logged work out of the Miami bullpen in three appearances this week. He struck out a batter in his outings on Sunday and Tuesday, and his season ERA sits at 3.33 after a tidy one-inning appearance against the Reds on August 16. A rough Friday outing against the Nationals — one earned run in two-thirds of an inning — nudged the ERA up briefly before Saturday's scoreless frame brought it back down.

Zuber's line for the week isn't eye-popping, but a 3.33 ERA for a reliever on a rebuilding Marlins club is a sign of a pitcher holding his own in a tough role. No source articles surfaced this week detailing his specific contributions, but the stat line tells a serviceable story.

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Two Red Wolves. Two different situations — one in the spotlight, one in the background. But both Arkansas State alumni are logging major-league innings and at-bats in August 2026, and Hicks in particular is making a case that the breakout is no fluke.

Arkansas State has two alumni on MLB rosters right now, but this week belonged squarely to one of them: Liam Hicks, the Rays' catcher out of Jonesboro, turned in one of the better stretches of his season between August 9 and 15.

Hicks Does the Heavy Lifting in Tampa Bay

The week's signature moment came Wednesday against the Athletics. Hicks went 3-for-the-night, launching a three-run homer while driving in three and scoring one in an 8-4 Rays win. It was the kind of line that stands alone — but what made the week notable was the consistency around it.

Hicks had opened the stretch Sunday against Seattle with a two-hit, two-RBI performance in a 4-1 Tampa Bay victory, a game in which Ian Seymour contributed seven strikeouts over six innings to do his part. By the time Friday and Saturday's games against Baltimore rolled around, Hicks wasn't matching those production peaks — but he kept reaching base, drawing multiple walks in each contest and scoring a run in both.

The cumulative effect: a batting average that has settled in at .284, a figure that reflects steady, professional contact work at a position not typically asked to carry offensive weight. For a catcher to contribute multi-hit, multi-RBI efforts across multiple games in a single week is a meaningful footnote for any roster — and for Red Wolves fans, it's a reason to tune in.

Zuber Holds His Ground in Miami

The other A-State name on the ledger is Tyler Zuber, a reliever working out of the Marlins' bullpen. Zuber logged three appearances during the period — against the Angels on Sunday, the Pirates on Wednesday, and the Reds on Saturday — pitching exactly one inning in each. He struck out two in one of those outings and one in each of the other two, trimming his ERA from 3.80 down to 3.47 across the week.

There's no headline moment to attach to Zuber's week — no high-leverage save situation, no signature strikeout — but a bullpen arm who eats innings cleanly and trends the right direction on ERA is doing exactly what a middle reliever is asked to do. His role in Miami appears stable.

The Red Wolf Roundup

Two Arkansas State alums, two different contributions: Hicks providing genuine offensive punch behind the plate in Tampa Bay, Zuber providing quiet, steady reliability in the Miami pen. It's the kind of alumni week that won't generate national headlines but will absolutely register in Jonesboro — a reminder that the Red Wolf pipeline into professional baseball is active and producing.

Keep an eye on Hicks specifically. A .284 average with demonstrated power and a stretch of multi-hit games suggests he's locked in at the plate. If Tampa Bay stays in contention through August, his bat could matter in games that count.