Marco Cardoso

Marco Paulo Cardoso

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 170 lb.

• Born December 14, 1999 in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany

Biographical Information

Marco Cardoso has played in the Bundesliga-1 and for the German national team.

In the 2014 U-15 Baseball World Cup, he hit .250/.308/.250 for Germany, with two steals in two tries and two outfield assists (one error) in eight games. Cardoso made his Bundesliga-1 debut in 2015, replacing Daniel Hinz at 2B for the Paderborn Untouchables one game and going 1 for 3 against the Hamburg Stealers; it was his only action in Bundesliga-1 that year. He became Paderborn's starting shortstop in 2016, fielding .911 and batting .261/.338/.290. He hit .263/.286/.263 in the 2016 European Junior Championship, fielding .897 with five runs in six games; he stole four bases but was caught three times. Only Aldrich De Jongh had more steals in the event but was no one was caught more.

The Boston Red Sox signed him in 2017. He was the second German signed by the Red Sox, following Jennell Hudson by ten years. He was also the second Paderborn player signed by a MLB team, following Nadir Ljatifi. He hit .253/.287/.337 for the 2017 Untouchables, fielding .953. His calling card was his defense; he led the league's shortstops in fielding percentage, .005 ahead of Eric Brenk.

Boston assigned him to the GCL Red Sox for 2018. He never got into a game, though, returning to Paderborn. In the 2018 Haarlem Baseball Week, he was 2 for 6 with a walk for Germany. In that year's Bundesliga-1, he batted .277/.311/.436 but his fielding fell to .933. He was second in the circuit with four triples (one behind Kazusa Katayama), third with 83 assists (behind Justin Brock and Daniel Sánchez) and fourth in SS fielding.

His 2019 Bundesliga-1 stats were .385/.443/.569 at the plate with 30 RBI in 28 games (fielding .962) Leaders are unavailable online (as of 12/15/2020). In the 2019 U-23 European Championship, he hit .286/.444/.357 with six RBI in five games, fielding .895. He tied Lino Balladini for 5th in the event in RBI; only Pascal Amon had more RBI for Germany. He starred for Germany in the 2019 European Championship. In the opener, he had 3 hits in a win over Sweden, the first one off Jesper Svedhem. The next day, his solo shot off Great Britain's Michael Roth (a former major leaguer) was the only run of the game. In a loss to the champion Dutch national team, his double off Lars Huijer scored Brenk with the only run. He also had 3 hits in a loss to the Czech national team and 3 RBI in a win over France. He finished at .483/.483/.828 with six runs and six RBI in seven games, fielding .976 and starting at second base. He was Germany's top offensive performer. For the 2019 Euros, he was third in average (behind Sebastiano Poma and Moritz Scheicher), sixth in slugging (between Andy Paz and former big leaguer Chris Colabello), first in hits (one ahead of Calten Daal), 4th in total bases (24, between Bastien Dagneau and Blake Gailen) and tied for 5th in assists (21).

Cardoso was slated to play for Germany in the 2020 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers before those were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Germany's season was shortened due to the pandemic, as well (as were seasons worldwide). He hit .386/.500/.659 for Paderborn and was among the leaders in runs (17 in 13 games; tied for 4th with Brenk and Brendon Dickson), hits (17, tied for 7th with Orlando Del Muro and Hinz), doubles (tied for 4th, 5), triples (2, tied for 1st), RBI (13, tied for 8th) and steals (4, tied for 4th).