Almora enjoys breakout spring
Slick- fielding CF having great camp in shadow of Bryant
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 camp turning heads among the 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.
No outfielder in camp is better defensively than the center fielder who doesn’t turn 21 until nextmonth 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 we have in camp, if not [ the best],” said first- year bench coach Dave Martinez, the former Cubs outfielder who coaches the position. “I’ve known about him. I’ve heard about him. And just watching him play this spring, he’s definitely caught my attention.”
Amid all the gushing over prospects and minorleague glory, 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- Class 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,” Martinez said. “He’s young. He’s super young. He just turned 20. But his fundamentals and his work ethic are unbelievable.”
Almora, whose father battled prostate cancer much of last season, was overly aggressive in his approach at the plate.
He believes he has solved that during an 8- for- 21 (. 381) spring that includes a .409 on- base percentage, a .933 on- base- plus- slugging percentage and 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 zone within the strike zone while ignoring harder- to- drive pitches outside of it ( with less than two strikes).
“He has such good handeye 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 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 Class AAA outfield this year, knows he’ll probably be part of the big cutdown in camp that’s likely coming Wednesday.
He also knows he accomplished everything he hoped to in big- league camp: “More than I really expected.”