MADRIGAL RETURNS WITH CONFIDENCE
SAN FRANCISCO — Cubs infielder Nick Madrigal hasn’t felt this much in a groove at the plate since his days with the White Sox. Now the Cubs are hoping he can translate that feeling to the major leagues.
They recalled him from Triple-A Iowa before opening a three-game series against the Giants on Friday. In a corresponding move, they optioned infielder Miles Mastrobuoni to Iowa.
Madrigal has been putting up eye-popping numbers in Triple-A since being optioned in late May. To go along with his .488 batting average, he has hit six doubles, three triples and a home run.
“There’s a lot of emotions, especially at first,” Madrigal said. “But I felt like I got into a good groove and just really found my swing and the style of play I usually play. It was nice to go down there and just play.”
The Cubs still haven’t seen the pre-injury version of Madrigal, who hit over .300 in his first two major-league seasons with the White Sox. He was recovering from hamstring surgery when the Cubs acquired him and reliever Codi Heuer for closer Craig Kimbrel at the 2021 trade deadline.
“Last year, my body was not where it needed to be,” Madrigal said. “I look back at some of my swings, and I just was compensating so much.”
Then, over this past offseason, the Cubs had Madrigal learn a new position, third base. When the season started, he wasn’t getting regular at-bats because of the depth the team had at third. He looked comfortable at the hot corner and was hitting .345 by mid-April, but his production tailed off from there. The Cubs sent him to Triple-A to “try to get him back on track,” as manager David Ross put it at the time.
With consistent at-bats, Madrigal found his timing, started driving the ball and got in a groove that he described as “seeing it like Wiffle ball.”
“Hopefully Nick can carry that into leading us off today and helping us win this ballgame,” Ross said before the game Friday.
Ross penciled Madrigal into the leadoff spot while giving second baseman Nico Hoerner a “breather.” He moved center fielder Mike Tauchman up to the No. 2 spot, followed by Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ. He slid Dansby Swanson to fifth in the order.
“Tauch’s been having great at-bats,” Ross said. “And hopefully deepen that a little bit with Seiya and Happer hopefully coming up with some guys on base a little bit more. [With] Dansby down there, I just feel like it’s a little bit deeper. And trying to shake something up. … Hope we can create a spark.”
Injury updates
Lefty Justin Steele (strained left forearm) is scheduled to throw a full bullpen session Saturday, after his light “touch and feel” bullpen produced promising results Thursday.
“From a pitch-data standpoint, everything was in line with what we expected a normal bullpen to look like,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “He felt good after, which was the most important thing. But from a velocity, pitch-shape standpoint, mechanics, everything looked perfectly normal.”
First baseman Edwin Rios (strained left groin) went through agility work on the Oracle Park field before the game. ✶