Player Profile: Albert Almora

Position: CF, OF

2016 Stats: .277/.308/.455, .267 TAv, 0.5 WARP

Year in Review: If Theo Epstein could’ve planned out what 2016 would look like for Albert Almora before the year began, it would look something like this: he gets to spend a whole year at one level (Triple-A) and put some work in with the bat to prepare him to take on Major League pitching in 2017. With Dexter Fowler re-signing, no one expected to see much of Almora in the Majors. One injury and a nice start later and Almora managed to spend almost five months and over at-batsbats with the Cubs, contributing all the way to the end of game 7.

After having a solid season at AA in 2015, everyone wanted to see what the bat would do at Triple-A Iowa. Almora continued to show his superb defensive skills, but then the bat showed it was capable of rounding him out into a complete player. He slashed .303/.317/.416 in 80 games before getting called up the big leagues at the ripe age of 22, becoming the youngest player on a team already loaded with young talent (Addison Russell is three months older, which is amazing in and of itself).

Players like Almora are often judged by their highlight reel—a defensively elite player with some speed but not much pop in the bat has few other ways of “looking good.” If we do that with Almora, we end up with a game-saving catch against San Francisco in the NLDS and his tag-up in game 7 of the World Series. The defense everyone already knew about—he’s been called a gold-glove CF for years now—and the baserunning was probably there the whole time, but no one pays attention to that stuff until it helps you win a championship.

And that’s just what happened on the baseball field. As he told TMZ, he not only made his big-league debut and won the Worlds Series, he also got married, had a baby (via his wife), and his dad’s cancer is in remission. Just about the only bad thing he did this year was…well, probably talk to TMZ. He’s young and he has some things to learn, which is why the Cubs aren’t going to just hand this job over to him. So let’s talk about that for a minute.

Looking Ahead: If you played Out of the Park Baseball (or any other baseball simulation where you get to play GM), you might simply allow Dexter Fowler to walk away and then drag and drop Almora into the CF spot. Boom—you just saved a ton of money and your defense got better! Sure, you still have to worry about Ben Zobrist or someone else taking over at the leadoff spot, but that’s still a nice to-do item to check off the list.

You let Almora bat ninth (or eighth) in much the same way Addison Russell was eased into the big leagues when he debuted. Let him play his elite defense, and let him get his at bats without him having to feel like he has to do too much. No pressure Albert, Jason Heyward Kyle Schwarber will provide the firepower in the outfield.

But the Cubs already have a lot of youth on the roster, and rather than dropping the 22-year old into that kind of situation, all indications point to 2017 as being another gradual stepping stone for Almora. He will likely be a part of a platoon with either Jason Heyward or a new acquisition so he can continue working on that bat while helping out with his defense and his baserunning. The goal is for him to spend the whole season on the roster, get a fair amount of starts while serving as a defensive replacement, and figure out a way for his elite contact skills to help him in the big leagues.

Almora is a driven, confident player that would like nothing more than to be the starting centerfielder for the 2017 Chicago Cubs. At the same time, the Cubs seem to recognize that the best thing for his development is to take another step in that direction rather than trying to bridge a chasm that’s still a bit too far out of reach.

If Almora can continue to build and that confidence and prove his bat is ready for full-time duty, then we might be seeing the sequel to the Willson Contreras 2016 show.

Lead photo courtesy Tommy Gilligan—USA Today Sports