Drafting Nick Madrigal was a bigger mistake than trading him

The Chicago White Sox have done a really good job adding young players to the organization over the last few years. They are considered to be a good team in 2022 (despite some ups and downs to start) because of these moves.

There have, however, been some mistakes made along the way as well. Every team in Major League Baseball can say that so it isn’t that big of a deal but there are certainly some things that they would like to take back.

One of the mistakes made is the trade made in 2021 between them and the Chicago Cubs. They sent Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer to the Cubs in exchange for Craig Kimbrel. He had an ERA under one at that point so it seemed like a good move at the time but it just didn’t work out.

Madrigal was out for the season because of an injury and Heuer struggled with the White Sox but now they are with the Cubs and Kimbrel was so bad for the White Sox. Since then, the Sox traded Kimbrel to the Los Angeles Dodgers for AJ Pollock.

Trading Nick Madrigal isn’t as big of a mistake as drafting him for the White Sox.

Although the White Sox probably wish that they could take that trade back, the bigger mistake was drafting Nick Madrigal in the first place. They took him with the 4th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft out of Oregon State University.

There were so many players taken after him that have shown much higher potential than what Madrigal has shown with the Cubs and White Sox. He is a slap-hitting singles machine that won’t ever hit for much power or slug well at all. A really good nine-hitter is his true potential.

Guys like Jonathan India, Logan Gilbert, Nico Hoerner, and Shane McClanahan are just a  few players that have been much better to start their MLB careers than Madrigal. The future is still to be determined but it just doesn’t look like a smart pick right now.

Either way, the White Sox need to worry about filling the second base position in the long term. Nick Madrigal isn’t there anymore and neither Leury Garcia nor Josh Harrison is the man for the job. This is a mistake to forget about and work around if you are Rick Hahn.