Chicago Cubs: Team’s recent slide aided by struggling depth

Chicago Cubs: It has been a roller coaster for Albert Almora but glimmers of hope show.

Albert Almora Jr. is by no means the worst player on the Cubs. He has had spurts of productivity and still plays a fine centerfield. In fact, he is one homer shy of his career high, so he has had some better power strokes this year. However, the overall numbers are still not quite where we want them to be.

So far, he is at a .251/.294/.407 slash with eight homers, an 80 wRC+ and a 0.6 fWAR. Not terrible, not great, overall mediocre. Despite hitting a few more bombs than his usual pace, his groundball rate is at 55.8% which is a bit higher than his career 50.5% mark. The BABIP is around .270, so he is not getting the fortune he was getting in the first half last year where more of those grounders squeaked through. Lastly, his walk rate is right where it usually is, which is around 5%, so he is still not walking much at all.

Almora is a career .282/.320/.411 hitter in 397 games. He is not going to be an OBP machine and likely not a 20+ homer slugger. For the time being, he is pretty much a platoon player/late-inning defensive glove. It would be nice if Almora can make those good spurts he has had last a bit longer.

What makes the struggling depth even more frustrating is that there is currently no Ben Zobrist to aid the core. The Cubs miss him. Theo and Co. may need to do some more shifting soon.