Given that he had such a major hamstring tear a couple years ago that it ended his season, required surgery, and then still impacted him the following season in 2022, it was pretty scary when Nick Madrigal left a game in Milwaukee earlier this month with a hamstring issue.
Then, when the Cubs announced it was a “moderate” strain of that same hamstring, well, I figured he was going to miss a very long time. Maybe even the rest of the season. You just didn’t know about his particular situation.
But then he went on a rehab assignment much more quickly than I could have anticipated, played regularly at Iowa, and boom. He’s already back. Like, as in tonight. Madrigal is starting for the Cubs at third base.
The Cubs officially activated Madrigal from the Injured List today, and optioned Miles Mastrobuoni back to Iowa.
We’ll see if Madrigal’s bat is still where it was before this last injury – the guy was really, finally looking good at the plate, in a way we hadn’t seen him do it with the Cubs. The glove, though, should hopefully be just as surprisingly great as it was throughout this season. If so, the Cubs will be very happy to get that defense back at third base.