Niko Kavadas

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Niko Kavadas is an American baseball player who plays first base and designates hitter for the Los Angeles Angels organization. Born on October 27, 1998, in South Bend, Indiana, he grew up in Granger and attended Penn High School. He bats left and throws right, and he made his major league debut on August 16, 2024, with the Angels. Through the 2025 season, he has a .168 batting average with 4 home runs and 8 RBIs.

Early life and college
At Penn High School, Kavadas earned top honors as a junior. He played college baseball at Notre Dame for four years and spent summers with the Kalamazoo Growlers in the Northwoods League and the Harwich Mariners in the Cape Cod League, where he was an all-star and tied for the league lead with nine home runs in 40 games. His senior year at Notre Dame was standout: he hit .302 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs, earning first-team All-ACC and Baseball America’s first-team All-American. He finished his college career with 46 home runs, 146 RBIs and a .286 average in 161 games.

Draft and pro career
Kavadas was drafted in the 11th round (316th overall) by the Boston Red Sox in 2021 and signed for a $250,000 bonus. He began in the rookie leagues and then moved through the Sox system, earning the organization’s Minor League Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2022. He split 2023 between Double-A and Triple-A. In 2024, he started with Worcester and was traded to the Angels on July 30, along with teammates for Luis García. He played for Salt Lake in 2024, batting .159 with 2 home runs in 11 games, and made his Angels debut on August 16, 2024. He hit a three-run homer for his first major-league hit on August 24 against the Blue Jays. In 2024 he appeared in 30 games for the Angels, hitting .183 with 4 home runs and 8 RBIs.

In 2025, Kavadas began the season with Salt Lake. On August 27, he pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in a blowout loss and recorded his first major-league strikeout against Joc Pederson. He played 10 games for the Angels, going 2-for-20 with three walks. He was designated for assignment on September 12 and cleared waivers, being outrighted to Salt Lake on September 14.