The Chicago Cubs are sending outfield prospect Kevin Alcántara back to Triple-A following the 23-year-old’s awful base-running gaffe in Sunday’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants.
Alcántara was doubled off third base in the eighth inning after Alex Bregman had a broken-bat, soft line drive caught by Rafael Devers at first base. This wasn’t a case of a great play from Devers because Alcántara had his head down, racing toward home when the ball was caught. A flat-out inexcusable blunder from Alcántara, who came in as a pinch-runner after a Miguel Amaya leadoff walk in the eighth.
According to Tommy Birch, the Iowa Cubs beat reporter for the Des Moines Register, Alcántara is returning to Triple-A after two weeks in the majors. Meanwhile, Matt Shaw, who went on the injured list May 22 because of back tightness, is reportedly joining the active roster on Tuesday, when the Cubs begin a three-game series on the road against the Colorado Rockies.
The decision to call up Alcántara was obviously first met with enthusiasm from the fan base. The right-handed hitting outfielder had a .906 OPS with 15 home runs with the Iowa Cubs at the time of his promotion. And at the time, the Cubs were searching for any spark on offense. Seiya Suzuki could have 100% been given the Dansby Swanson treatment, sitting on the bench for a few games in a row, but instead the Cubs decided that Alcántara would only be used against left-handed starting pitchers.
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So, in two weeks, Alcántara received a total of 10 plate appearances, while getting plugged into late-game situations as a pinch-runner. I’m not going to judge him off those 10 PA because that’s next to nothing of a sample size, however, as much as it was frustrating to see him not play, it was equally disappointing to see him fail in the few chances he got as a base-runner.
I’m sorry, you can like the guy, think he’s going to be great, and believe he should have played more, but there is no excuse for the bad base-running. Plus, these issues go back years in the minor leagues. That may ultimately go back to management, because why would you give Alcántara that responsibility when he otherwise wasn’t going to play much anyway when he has a reputation of not being a good base runner.
At the same time, Alcántara has been in the minor leagues for six years now, and it’s telling if he hasn’t improved that part of his game. Furthermore, Alcántara has already been the subject of a Counsell outburst in spring training, when the manager yelled at the team about their base running during drills, with Alcántara as the main culprit.
It appears as though Alcántara still hasn’t figured it out.
As far as the Cubs calling up Alcántara and not playing him, they may have been better suited calling up one of their veteran players in Iowa to come up and be a bench guy. You hope this doesn’t harm Alcántara’s development, but the 23-year-old just spent two weeks barely playing, so I’m not really sure how that helps him. Still, it was disappointing to see him making those dumbass mistakes on the bases.
One final thing to point out, Alcántara is out of minor league options after this season, which means if the Cubs want to keep him, then he has to be on the active 26-man roster. Given the lack of confidence the team showed in him this time around, it’s increasingly likely that Alcántara may not be in the organization’s long-term plans. We’ll see if that changes during the next four months.
