Nicklaus Michael Madrigal (born March 5, 1997) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

. Madrigal played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

for the

Oregon State Beavers The Oregon State Beavers are the sport, athletic teams that represent Oregon State University, located in Corvallis, Oregon. The Beavers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Division I ...

and was selected by the White Sox in the first round of the

2018 MLB draft The 2018 Major League Baseball draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In addition, compensation pi ...

. He made his MLB debut in 2020 with the White Sox.

Amateur career

Madrigal attended Elk Grove High School in

Elk Grove, California Elk Grove is a city in Sacramento County, California, United States. Located just south of the state capital of Sacramento, it is part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 176,124. A 2021 C ...

, where he was teammates with Dylan Carlson. In 2015, his senior year, he batted .449 with 28 stolen bases. He was drafted by the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

in the 17th round of the

2015 Major League Baseball draft The 2015 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 8 through June 10, 2015, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order is the reverse order of the 2014 MLB season standings. As the Diamondbacks finished the 2014 season ...

. He did not sign with the Indians and attended

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

where he played

for the

Beavers Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

. As a freshman at Oregon State, Madrigal started in 49 games and hit .333/.380/.456 with one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

and 29

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

(RBIs). He was named the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

Freshman of the Year and was a first team All-Pac-12 selection. In 2017, Madrigal's sophomore year, he batted .380 with four home runs and forty RBIs in sixty games and was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year. He was also named to the College World Series All-Tournament Team. In 2018, as a junior, he slashed .367/.428/.511 with three home runs and 34 RBIs in 42 games.

Professional career

Chicago White Sox

Minor leagues

Madrigal was selected fourth overall by the

in the

2018 Major League Baseball draft The 2018 Major League Baseball draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In addition, compensation pi ...

. He signed for $6,411,400, and was assigned to the rookie–level

Arizona League White Sox The Arizona Complex League White Sox are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, competing in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona. The team is compos ...

before being promoted to the Single–A

Kannapolis Intimidators Kannapolis () is a city in Cabarrus and Rowan Counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord and northeast of Charlotte, and is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The city of Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984. ...

in July and the High–A

Winston-Salem Dash The Winston-Salem Dash are a Minor League Baseball team in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They are a High-A team in the South Atlantic League and have been a farm team of the Chicago White Sox since 1997. The Dash began playing their home games ...

in August. In 43 games between the three affiliates, Madrigal slashed .303/.353/.348 with 16 RBI and eight stolen bases. He returned to Winston-Salem to begin 2019 and was promoted to the Double-A

Birmingham Barons The Birmingham Barons are a Minor League Baseball team based in Birmingham, Alabama. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and plays at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham. The Baron ...

in June after slashing .272/.346/.377 with 52 hits, 20 runs scored, and 17 stolen bases in 49 games with the team. Madrigal was named to the 2019

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League- ...

. After the 2019 MLB trade deadline, he was promoted to the Triple–A

Charlotte Knights The Charlotte Knights are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. They are located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and play their home games at Truist Field ...

Major leagues

On July 31, 2020, Madrigal was promoted to the major leagues for the first time. He started at second base and batted ninth against the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

, and went 0–for–3. On August 4, Madrigal suffered a separated shoulder while sliding into third base during a game against the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...

. The next day he was placed on the injured list. Overall with the 2020 Chicago White Sox, Madrigal batted .340 with no home runs and 11 RBI in 29 games. Madrigal underwent surgery to repair his separated shoulder following the 2020 season. On April 24, 2021, Madrigal got his first walk–off hit in his major league career in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers off of pitcher John King, leading the White Sox to a 2–1 win. On May 17, Madrigal hit his first major league home run off of

J. A. Happ James Anthony Happ (born October 19, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He won the World Series as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, and was an Major League Basebal ...

of the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

. Madrigal hit .305/.349/.425 with two home runs and 21 RBI in 54 games. He was the team leader in hits with 61 until June 9, when he suffered a proximal tear of his right hamstring. Madrigal was placed on the 60-day injured list the following day. On June 15, the

announced on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that Madrigal had undergone surgery to repair the hamstring and would miss the remainder of the 2021 season.

Chicago Cubs

On July 30, 2021, Madrigal was traded along with

Codi Heuer Codi Dalton Heuer (born July 3, 1996) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs. Heuer played college baseball a ...

to the

in exchange for

Craig Kimbrel Craig Michael Kimbrel (born May 28, 1988) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Texas Rangers organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Chicago ...

. Madrigal made his Cubs debut in 2022 and played 59 games in that season, hitting .249/.305/.282, producing 0.7 WAR while playing second base. On January 13, 2023, Madrigal agreed to a one-year, $1.2 million contract with the Cubs, avoiding salary arbitration. Madrigal opened the 2023 season with the Cubs as their primary third baseman. In 92 games for Chicago, he slashed .263/.311/.352 with two home runs, 28 RBI, and 10 stolen bases. In 51 games for the Cubs in 2024, Madrigal slashed .221/.280/.256 with no home runs and 10 RBI. While playing with the Triple–A

Iowa Cubs The Iowa Cubs are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They are located in Des Moines, Iowa, and are named for their Major League Baseball (MLB) affiliate. T ...

, he suffered a fracture in his left hand after he was hit by a

Trey Wingenter Anthony James Wingenter III (born April 15, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, De ...

pitch. Madrigal was transferred to the 60–day injured list on September 1. On November 22, the Cubs non–tendered Madrigal, making him a free agent.

New York Mets

On January 31, 2025, Madrigal signed a one-year, split contract with the

. On February 28, it was announced that Madrigal was likely to miss the entirety of the 2025 season after suffering a fractured left shoulder that would require surgery.

Personal life

His twin brother, Ty, played college baseball at

Saint Mary's College of California Saint Mary's College of California is a Private college, private Catholic college in Moraga, California, United States. Established in 1863, it is administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college offers undergraduate and graduate programs w ...

. He signed with the White Sox as an undrafted free agent on June 16, 2020.

References

External links

Oregon State Beavers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madrigal, Nick 1997 births Living people Arizona League White Sox players Baseball players from Sacramento, California Birmingham Barons players Charlotte Knights players Chicago Cubs players Chicago White Sox players Iowa Cubs players Kannapolis Intimidators players Major League Baseball second basemen Oregon State Beavers baseball players Winston-Salem Dash players