The Angels announced that infielder Nick Madrigal cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. He has enough service time to have the right to elect free agency and has exercised that right. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week.
Madrigal, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Halos in the offseason. He was added to the roster in late May as infielders Yoán Moncada and Nolan Schanuel were on the injured list. Madrigal spent about four weeks on the roster, getting into 15 games and making 52 plate appearances. Never much of a power hitter, he recorded 12 hits. 11 of those were singles, the other a double.
He did draw seven walks, an uncharacteristically strong 13.5% clip in that small sample. That helped push up the middle portion of his slash line, as he got to .273/.385/.295 with the Angels. That helped him produce a 102 wRC+ during his brief time as an Angel, technically a bit above average, but he has a 5% walk rate in his career and probably wasn’t going to maintain that pace of getting on base. The Halos bumped him of the roster and the 29 other clubs passed on the chance to grab him.
He’ll now see what opportunities await him as a free agent. Since he just cleared waivers, he’ll presumably be limited to minor league offers. He is one of the most contact-oriented hitters in the game today. As mentioned, he has just a 5% walk rate in his career, which is barely half of league average. His 8.9% strikeout rate is just over a third of par. But he has just four home runs in 992 trips to the plate at the big league level. His overall .274/.326/.342 slash line leads to an 88 wRC+.
Defensively, Madrigal has over 1400 innings at second base and over 700 at third. He has strong marks at both spots but teams generally prefer a bit more versatility from a light-hitting bench infielder. He has minor league experience at shortstop and left field but just eight innings at short and only 36 in left.
Photo courtesy of William Liang, Imagn Images
