{"id":582979,"date":"2026-02-20T14:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/582979\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:38:13","slug":"he-went-from-d3-baseball-to-a-contract-with-the-cubs-and-his-story-is-just-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/582979\/","title":{"rendered":"He went from D3 baseball to a contract with the Cubs and his story is just getting started"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"U422ZL5FSZEP3LCRPTCKMXWAUA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2024\/06\/nj-native-goes-from-d3-arcadia-to-unc-hero-with-best-feeling-of-my-life-moment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2024\/06\/nj-native-goes-from-d3-arcadia-to-unc-hero-with-best-feeling-of-my-life-moment.html\">Alex Madera\u2019s unlikely baseball story<\/a> just added another uplifting chapter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"J3NVTYUH7NA4HAKJVJCGJPXN5Y\">The former <a href=\"https:\/\/highschoolsports.nj.com\/player\/alex-madera\/baseball\/season\/2018-2019\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/highschoolsports.nj.com\/player\/alex-madera\/baseball\/season\/2018-2019\">Delran High School star<\/a>, who completed his college career last year at North Carolina, said he got a call Tuesday to sign a minor-league contract with the Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"NCQTMH2HAZCS3AP3W4TI2XHZIY\">\u201cI was sitting at home and I got a call from Matthew Dorey telling me they were going to sign me,\u201d Madera said via text message Thursday night. \u201cI just landed (in Arizona) and I have to get my physical and paperwork done tomorrow. I honestly have no idea what\u2019s going to happen after that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"PNZKXSNZF5BAPHNPRHGCY3LIVM\">Dorey is the Cubs\u2019 vice president of player personnel. The team typically has held a minor-league minicamp ahead of the full camp for their prospects, which opens in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"J7LPPFUBKNE2VE7N6R4QK6D7WI\">Lightly recruited out of Delran, the same high school that produced U.S. women\u2019s soccer legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/highschoolsports\/2025\/08\/carli-lloyds-ascension-into-us-national-team-soccer-stardom-flashback-friday.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/highschoolsports\/2025\/08\/carli-lloyds-ascension-into-us-national-team-soccer-stardom-flashback-friday.html\">Carli Lloyd<\/a>, Madera started his college career at Division III Arcadia in Glenside, Pa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"K3CLYZWUXRFMZJZITRZKBHALR4\">Arcadia only played 12 games during Madera\u2019s freshman season because of the COVID-19 shut down, but he eventually developed into a D3 superstar. Arcadia went 98-42 during his four seasons and won two Middle Atlantic Conference Championships. Madera left with school records in career batting average (.432), walks (99) and stolen bases (86).<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"FSNZVDLXRNDK3IEM5DHKWLDX3I\">His college career was elevated to a much high level in 2024 when he signed to play with North Carolina, one of the best Division I teams in the country. During two seasons with the Tar Heels, Madera played in 124 games, including three games in the 2024 College World Series. He batted .317 with a .419 on-base percentage, scored 97 runs, drove in 72 and stole 22 bases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"JHFVLMZCI5BBFBRMONMTULSVS4\">Madera, 25, had signed to play with the Milwaukee Milkmen, an independent league team in the American Association, but that season was not scheduled to begin until early May. Now, he has a chance to play for one of the Cubs\u2019 minor-league affiliates in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Madera\u2019s unlikely baseball story just added another uplifting chapter. The former Delran High School star, who completed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[2514,5,138,24,4245,161,4,2515],"class_list":{"0":"post-582979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-2514","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-wspix"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116103473408037263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}