Arizona's Nik McClaughry Joins New MLB Organization

Nik McClaughry continues to work his way through the minor leagues of professional baseball after a successful three-year collegiate career at Arizona. 

McClaughry began at Sacramento City College from 2018-20 before transferring to Tucson for his next three years in College.

As a sophomore, McClaughry made 43 starts across 55 appearances where he hit .316 with 37 runs scored, 32 RBI and a .412 on-base percentage. He took over as the every day starting shortstop at the end of March, and went on to start every game the rest of the season. He hit .326 in Pac-12 play to go along with an impressive .967 fielding percentage. In his first taste of the postseason, he went 6-for-27 with a hit in each of the two College World Series games.

The next year, McClaughry started all 64 games at shortstop where he hit .265 with 57 runs scored, 14 doubles and 24 RBI. He finished the season top-10 in the conference in runs scored. The shortstop later started all eight postseason games, hitting .235 with nine runs scored and three RBI. 

As a senior, McClaughry started 58 of the Wildcats 59 games at shortstop. He became the second ever Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year at Arizona, hitting .325 at the plate with 71 runs scored and 35 walks drawn to just 36 strikeouts. He hit .325 with 71 runs scored, 12 doubles and 39 RBI as part of a huge senior campaign with the Wildcats. In the postseason, McClaughry hit .308 with seven runs across all six postseason games. 

McClaughry went on to be drafted in the 10th round of the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Diego Padres. 

In just his first year of professional baseball, he appeared in two games for the Padres Arizona Complex League team, 27 games in Single-A and finished the year appearing in one game in Triple-A. 

Across his 27 games with Single-A Lake Elsinore, McClaughry hit .256 with 10 runs scored and 15 RBI. 

He started the following year with High-A Fort Wayne, hitting .149 with 31 runs scored and 18 RBI across 83 games played and 255 at-bats. 

This year, McClaughry joined the Seattle Mariners organization. 

He played one game with Triple-A Tacoma before he was assigned to the Mariners Arizona Complex League team. He has hit .208 across 52 games this year in the ACL with 26 runs scored and 18 RBI. 

The Arizona alum will look to get on track in the Mariners organization as he works his way up their minor league farm system.