Nico Hoerner is an American baseball player who made his MLB debut for the Chicago Cubs in 2019 after having the honour of being picked by them during the first round of the previous year’s MLB Draft. Injury has tempered his career to date, but he played an impressive number of games for the Cubs during the 2021 season and is ready to fully regain his career momentum.

Hoerner was born in Oakland, California, in 1997. During his four years of high school, he was a regular star of their baseball team, and in his senior posted an almost-impossibly high batting average of .517. He then went on to the prestigious Stanford University, playing for their team, the Cardinal. During his time with them, he was named as an All-Pac-12 player (twice) and All-Pac-12 Defensive Team player. He also spent his summer holidays playing for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

After graduation, he was the 24th pick of the 2018 MLB Draft, being picked up by the Chicago Cubs for $2.72 million. He immediately went on various assignments within the Cubs’ minor-league system and spent time playing for the Arizona League Cubs, Eugene Emeralds, South Bend Cubs, Mesa Solar Sox, and the Tennessee Smokies. In September 2019, he became the first player from his draft class to be called up to the Cubs themselves and made his debut the night of his promotion. Since then, despite injuries, he has posted impressive averages, hit his fair share of home runs, and started to establish himself as a star player of the future.