It has been 9 games since Albert Almora Jr. took over as the ‘starting’ center fielder, and he has not looked back. While Ian Happ had a tremendous spring training, Cubs fans continued to clamor for Almora, as they have done the past two seasons.
Happ lead off the year with a bang, hitting a leadoff home run to start the 2018 season, but now sits at a .246 average with just 3 home runs.
Joe Maddon road the not so hot hand of Happ for almost a month before finally giving way to the highlight-reel player, that Almora has become. Almora has reminded the Cubs of his value once again and also has shown another example of how the Cubs continue to win despite their Manager Joe Maddon.
The Cubs even won the World Series in 2016 in spite of Maddon’s over managing, and once again he has been proven wrong with the delay of playing time for Almora in 2018. Maddon brings tremendous clubhouse culture and stability to an organization that lacked it for decades.
But if he is not careful, his decision-making surrounding Almora is just one of many that put his long-term future into question in Chicago.
There are only so many times players can bail out their manager’s decisions. Once again, in the case of Almora, the players are winning.
While it would be hard to believe there is any spite between Maddon and Almora, it must be an incredible feeling for Almora to prove his doubters wrong, especially one who can now not risk taking him out of the lineup thanks to stellar play and the excitement he has brought to Cubs nation.
Almora’s third start of this 9-game stretch against the Rockies was one for the ages. In one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the league, Almora patrolled the outfield as if he had played in Coors Field his whole career.
He had 3 top-ten plays of the year in center field, giving homage to Willie Mays and other great outfielders with his sensational plays, including a game-saving play to secure the 9-7 win over Colorado.
The 24-year-old and future gold-glover was channeling his inner Patches O’Houlihan from Dodgeball using the motto of “Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge.” He was flying across the field, turning heads in the stands, and hopefully providing more evidence to his manager that he should play every day.
Almora has had 8 hits over the 9 games and now has boosted his average to .309. And in a lead-off spot that is still in search of a permanent fixture since the departure of Dexter Fowler, Almora should be considered for that slot every day moving forward.
The Cubs’ transparency and their sincere focus on baseball education since the hiring of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, has forced Cubs fans to become smarter baseball fans. No longer are there fans who just passively watch the games, only to then argue their opinion as the “Monday Morning Quarterback.”
Because of this seismic shift of breeding a smarter baseball fandom, fans need to be given more credit when they offer an alternative solution to a problem the Cubs may be facing. This time the fans were out-smarting the manager.
Albert Almora is not simply the ‘back-up’ quarterback fans are clamoring for. He is an established versatile player that has proven Joe Maddon wrong every time he plays him by making a tremendous impact in the game.
The Cubs would not have advanced to the NLCS in 2016 without the defensive play of Almora in San Francisco, stealing a double from Buster Posey down the right-field line and doubling up Brandon Belt.
Nor would they have been in a position to take the lead in the 10th inning of the World Series, without a smart-tag up by a pinch-running Almora on a fly-out that put him in position to score the leading run on the now famous Ben Zobrist single.
And how would they have advanced to face the Dodgers in the 2017 NLCS without a game-tying hit by Albert Almora in the 7th inning of Game 3 of the NLDS against the Bryce Harper and the Nationals?
All of these historic moments in Cubs history and over the last week plus all have one thing in common; Albert Almora Jr.
Almora has written himself into Cubs history already, yet that still doesn’t seem good enough for Joe Maddon. Maddon was forced to play Almora after the Ian Happ experiment could no longer go on, but what if Happ continued his great play from Spring Training?
Would Almora ever have seen the field, if he were to platoon with Kyle Schwarber or Happ? The lack of the DH in the NL makes this a complicated spot for playing time for a player like Almora in this scenario. however it would have forced Maddon to really make the hard and smart decision, one he gets paid millions of dollars to make. And when push comes to shove, I’m still not sure Maddon would have pulled the trigger like he reluctantly did April 20th.
Almora has earned more than just being a spot-player against lefties and I am afraid once Almora has one bad game, Maddon will go back to Happ, leaving his 2.7 WAR center fielder out of the lineup. For reference, Jayson Heyward has a 3.8 WAR and he is an everyday player; an impressive feat for Almora’s early season backup role.
If you’re Joe Maddon, you have to continue to ride the hot hand. Almora has earned the right to play every-day, and the entire league now knows it. Maddon needs to embrace his play like fans and players have, and not bury himself too deep in analytics and match ups. It’s already cost him credibility with the fan base, even after a World Series Championship.
Almora is here to stay, whether Joe likes it or not.
