3 former Chicago Cubs who are failing miserably this season

Chicago Cubs: Albert Almora hasn’t found a way back to what he once was

Albert Almora has always been one of those guys you wished could just put it all together. You’d see flashes, only for him to struggle for weeks on-end. His defense was Web Gem-worthy on a nightly basis, but even that had fallen off by the end of his Cubs tenure.

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While we’re all focused on Kyle Schwarber, another former Chicago outfielder the team parted ways with last winter, we’ve hardly paid any attention at all to Almora – and it’s not all that difficult to understand why.

The former first-rounder inked a minor league deal with the New York Mets prior to the season and to say it hasn’t gone well is putting it mildly. In just 40 at-bats, he’s accrued a -0.8 WAR and is hitting .075 (3-for-40). According to Baseball Savant, he’s pounding the ball into the ground, which, when paired with a strikeout rate north of 40 percent, makes it pretty clear he’s in trouble.

An early season injury when he collided with the wall totally derailed the young outfielder. That shoulder injury could still be impacting him, we don’t know. But it’s safe to say that, coming off the 2016 World Series season, we all pictured a very different future for this guy.

You know it’s bad when the highlight of your season heading into July is getting your first big league pitching appearance in a lopsided blowout loss. But that’s where things are at with Almora.