TUESDAY: Madrigal receives the full slot of $6,411,400, Heyman tweets.
SUNDAY: The White Sox will sign the fourth pick in this year’s draft, Oregon State infielder Nick Madrigal, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets. The exact terms of his deal aren’t yet known, but the selection carries a slot value of just over $6.4MM.
Madrigal is coming off a championship-winning season at OSU, where he overcame a wrist injury to slash an eye-popping .367/.428/.511 in 180 at-bats this year. Thanks in part to his outstanding showing in 2018, Madrigal ranked among the top five prospects entering this year’s draft, according to FanGraphs (No. 2), Baseball America (No. 3) and MLB.com (No. 3), while ESPN’s Keith Law placed him at No. 11.
At 5-foot-7, 165 pounds, Madrigal is diminutive, but prospect experts have high hopes for his offense translating to the majors. BA, for example, contends that he “possesses arguably the best hit tool” in this year’s draft class, and adds that he could emerge as a legitimate stolen base threat in the majors. It’s not yet clear, however, whether Madrigal will line up at second base or shortstop in the pros. He has experience at both positions, but he manned the keystone in 2018 at OSU, which had fellow high draft pick Cayden Grenier (No. 37, Orioles) at short.
