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Albert Almora Jr. has been one of the worst hitters in all of baseball for the past calendar year. We’re talking about the third worst hitter with at least 400 plate appearances. Despite setting a career high in home runs with nine this season, Almora is still only slugging .378, the same as last year. He also has an embarrassing .272 OBP.
Before this year, Almora had solid numbers against left-handed pitching, posting a .816 OPS against them. But in 2019, he’s been terrible against everyone and somehow worse vs. LHP. In 86 at-bats against lefties this year, Almora has a .512 OPS.
For some reason, Almora was batting fifth Tuesday night against Madison Bumgarner. Almora went 0-for-3, and then in the eighth inning with the Cubs down 4-3 with two outs and Kris Bryant at third base, Almora’s spot in the lineup came up.
I bet there aren’t many times when the #5 hitter is replaced when the tying run is in scoring position and I bet that especially doesn’t happen with a guy who only had five at-bats in July.
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But guess what, on Tuesday night Almora was pinch-hit for by Daniel Descalso and thank god because Descalso actually walked and then Jason Heyward tied the game with a single.
By the way, Descalso has a higher OBP this year than Almora, .283 vs. 272.
Albert Almora Jr. has been terrible since 2018. He’s done nothing to make adjustments at the plate. There is no reason he should be on the roster let alone get the majority of playing time in center field, while batting in the top-half of the lineup.
“Production over talent.” Where’s the accountability for Almora?
