Chicago White Sox: Nick Madrigal is so important to Chicago’s future
The Chicago White Sox should not trade Nick Madrigal just to trade him.
The Chicago White Sox learned how good Nick Madrigal can be during his rookie year. 2020 was good for a lot of Chicago White Sox players on the field and Madrigal is one of them. He had a couple of miscues in the playoffs on the base pads and defensively but that is to be expected with a lot of kids in the postseason. He was outstanding in the regular season and there is no doubt about it.
Madrigal means a whole lot to the White Sox future. He was a 4th overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft which says a lot about what the White Sox thought of him. He doesn’t have the ceiling of guys like Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, or Luis Robert but his floor is what he did in 2020 and that was really good baseball.
He slashed .340/.376/.369 with an OPS of .745. He did not hit a single home run but he had 11 RBIs with eight runs scored. All of this came with only 109 plate appearances so it will be interesting to see what he does over 162 games. 2021 should be a year where he plays every day that he is healthy (for the most part) and he will be awesome to have to hit low in a deep lineup.
One thing you can always expect from him is contact of some sort. He only walked three times in 2020 and struck out seven times. Neither of those numbers is very high for the number of plate appearances that he had. He might never eclipse five home runs in a single season of his career but the power isn’t in his game. He is going to hit for contact so he can get on base and drive in runs. Having a guy like that behind some of the stars on this team will be nice.
He has also shown that he can be a Gold Glove level second baseman. Some of the nerves got to him in the playoffs but he should be great defensively in the long term. He has already been a Gold Glove winner in the Minor Leagues so you know that he is capable of making big plays with his mitt.
There have been some rumors out there that the White Sox should trade away Madrigal this offseason. If they did that, it could turn out to be one of the great mistakes they could make. They are pretty early on in their winning window so they should really be careful about who they trade. Unless it was a can’t miss MLB superstar coming back in a megadeal, the Sox should not consider it.
Hot. The White Sox are the best baseball team in Chicago. light
He has come along so nicely and is clearly a long term piece for this young team. He was awesome in 2020 and should only get better beyond that. When Yoan Moncada moved over to third base ahead of the 2019 season, it made room for Madrigal to be an impact player at second base when he was ready. He has done that so far. If your “role players” are this good, you know that your team can win. Hopefully, the White Sox keep him and allow him to help them win a World Series.