Chicago White Sox: Nick Madrigal wants to play on Opening Day
Chicago White Sox second baseman, Nick Madrigal, wants to play on Opening Day.
Scott Merkin of MLB dot com does great work for the Chicago White Sox. He had an article come out on Tuesday that talked about Nick Madrigal and his rehab from shoulder surgery. He has returned to Camelback Ranch to start rehab work. Merken also was pretty clear about the fact that Madrigal’s goal is to be 100 percent by the time the season starts. It is a fair goal and getting to Arizona was a significant step in that process.
This is good news for the White Sox because Nick Madrigal is such an important piece to their organization. They believe he will be the second baseman if they ever get their World Series title with this core. He could be a big key to being a contender for a long time. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft and has lived up to that selection so far.
Madrigal is one of the more unique players that have ever come up through the White Sox system. He is the definition of a contact hitter. His slash line in his rookie year of 2020 was .340/.376/.369 so his average was awesome but the rest weren’t great. He hit zero home runs and most of his hits were singles. He is the perfect guy to be the ninth hitter going forward. With big bats like Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu, and Eloy Jimenez hitting behind him, it is fun to think about his run-scoring potential.
Madrigal is also a very good defensive second baseman. He can play defense good enough to be in Gold Glove contention each year. Some jitters caused him to make an error every now and then during 2020 but he also made some really nice plays. He won a Minor League Gold Glove in 2019 so the hope is that he can snag a few during his MLB career.
Nick Madrigal returned to light baseball activity Monday in Arizona for the first time as part of rehab work following offseason left shoulder surgery. The second baseman plans to be ready to go, at 100 %, by the White Sox projected Opening Day of April 1: https://t.co/dmN8gF3Q8Z
— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) January 5, 2021
Madrigal, in his phone interview with MLB dot com, gave lots of quotes about his play in 2020 and how he plans on returning from this injury. It is clear that he has accepted that he won’t ever be a power guy and will focus on what has made him successful. 2020 was a small sample size because of his injury, rookie status, and the pandemic but he will surely play a lot of games in 2021.
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It was good that he had the chance to see Major League starting pitching and relievers this year. We know that he is capable of adjusting to the way people attack him at the plate so that could help him become a really good player. Hopefully, this was a step in the right direction for him and he can be fully ready to go by Opening Day.