MESA, Ariz. – With all due respect to Kris Bryant and his headline-grabbing, star-potential power, the slugging third baseman isn’t the only first-round pick in Cubs’ camp turning heads this spring among the Cubs’ coaching staff.
Not even the only one in his condo.
The best young player in camp that nobody outside the organization seems to be talking about is Bryant’s roommate, Albert Almora, who has quietly put together a strong, impressive spring at the plate while doing something not even Bryant can claim:
Nobody in camp is better defensively at his position than the center fielder who doesn’t turn 21 until next month – and who might yet prove to become every bit as important to any competitive run the Cubs put together over the next several years as Bryant.
“He’s one of the best [outfielders] we have in camp, if not [the best],” said first-year bench coach Dave Martinez, the former Cubs outfielder who coaches the position area for the club. “I’ve known about him. I’ve heard about him. And just watching him play this spring, he’s definitely caught my attention.”
With all the prospect gushing and minor-league glory the Cubs experienced over the last nine months it would seem easy to forget Almora in the sizeable, growing shadows of Bryant, Jorge Soler and newcomers Kyle Schwarber and Addison Russell.
“Trust me, we haven’t forgotten about him,” Martinez said.
Team president Theo Epstein’s first Cubs draft pick (No. 6 overall in 2012) was a consensus top-40 prospect his first two professional seasons before struggling much of the first half of last season in the advanced-A Florida State League.
“I know that supposedly he had a rough year last year, but based on what I’ve seen, he’s got all the ability and talents to play in the big leagues,” said Martinez, who plans to have Almora learn the two other outfield spots, too. “He’s young. He’s super young. But his fundamentals and his work ethic are unbelievable.”
Almora, who battled his emotions as his father battled prostate cancer much of last season, also battled a too-aggressive approach at the plate that he believes he has solved during an 8-for-21 (.381) spring that includes a .409 on-base percentage, .933 OPS and just two strikeouts.
“I wish I had an explanation for why it clicked now [and not last season],” Almora said. “Maybe I misunderstood it or it was explained the wrong way. The point is that now they put it to me in a clear form and I put it into my right terms and it works phenomenal.”
He’s talking about the easier-said-than-done ability to identify a personal “drive” zone within the strike zone and ignore harder-to-drive pitches outside of it (with less than two strikes), even if the pitch is hittable.
“He has such good hand-eye coordination,” farm director Jaron Madison said. “He can put almost any ball in play – and sometimes he tries to do just that.”
It has made him uniquely successful at reaching outside the zone for years; but may also make him especially successful if the new approach sticks if only because it should make him more competitive with two strikes.
“I remember one at-bat [this spring], it wasn’t my pitch, I let it go, and I said, `Oh, well, it’s strike one,’ “ he said. “And the guy never called it. I’m like, `Wow, there it is.’ that’s how I’ll get deeper into counts.’
“It’s been working phenomenal. I’ve been feeling really good at the plate.”
Almora, who could wind up in the AAA outfield this year, knows he’ll probably be part of the big cut down in camp that’s likely coming Wednesday.
He also knows he accomplished everything he hoped so far in big-league camp – “more than I really expected.”
And it seems no accident that the veteran starting center fielder the Cubs acquired in January, Dexter Fowler, is a free agent at the end of the year.
His confidence is high. His dad is doing well again. And if he has become the forgotten man in the Cubs’ touted inner core of prospects?
“That’s all right,” he said. “That’s nothing I can control. I’m not trying to make a list or anything like that. I’m trying to make a ballclub.”
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