He’s back. After hitting .488/.580/.854/256 wRC+ over 50 PAs at Triple-A Iowa – and after the Cubs’ performance of late led everyone involved to figure why not – Nick Madrigal is back with the big league team.
The key to Madrigal’s return is to expect nothing. He isn’t being summoned because he figured everything out in a couple weeks at Iowa and can lead a turnaround in the offense. He’s coming back because it’s clear he won’t get much out of Triple-A at this point in his career, and the Cubs still need to find out what they have in him. I hope he plays regularly.
For tonight, Madrigal is leading off and playing second base, giving Nico Hoerner a breather. Longer-term, I hope he just kinda takes over at third base, where Patrick Wisdom is struggling badly and Christopher Morel is apparently not ready to play defensively.
As for Mastrobuoni, it’s clear the Cubs really like him. But despite some hard contact and a lot of walks, the results just keep not being there. It becomes very difficult to justify continuing to play a guy who is hitting .161/.266/.196/36 wRC+.