Thursday was a chaotic roster shuffle for all 30 Major League Baseball teams, and the New York Mets had some surprising moves.
On one hand, there were additions, like left-handed pitcher Jose Castillo and utility man Ji-Hwan Bae, both of whom the Mets claimed off waivers. But there was also a notable subtraction: the highest former MLB draft pick of any Mets free-agent signing last winter.
After a year in which he didn’t play a single game, infielder Nick Madrigal elected free agency on Thursday, according to the official MLB transactions log. He was likely waived, which is not always reflected in the log, as the Mets had him under arbitration control for next season, and he was a strong candidate to be non-tendered anyway.
Madrigal, 28, was the fourth-overall pick in the 2018 draft by the Chicago White Sox, as he was coming off a national championship at Oregon State and batted .369 against top-level Division I competition. In the majors, though, his stats have tailed off every season since his 2020 debut.
The White Sox had Madrigal for two seasons, and he batted .317 with a .764 OPS for them. Injuries have always curtailed his development, however, and the Sox traded him across town to the Chicago Cubs in the deal that sent Craig Kimbrel to the Southside before the 2022 season.
After being nontendered by the Cubs last winter, Madrigal signed a one-year, $1.35 million deal with the Mets. It seemed like a high-upside signing, as the 5-foot-7 contact specialist can play either second or third base and still possesses the same bat-to-ball skills that helped him hit for a high average everywhere along the line.
But a fractured shoulder, suffered just days into spring training camp, essentially ended Madrigal’s Mets stint before it even began.
Some other team will surely take a chance on the former national champion, provided he’s healthy, but it’s just a question of whether he has any hope at signing a guaranteed contract or has to scrap for a minor-league deal.
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