The sad demise of Albert Almora — a career that turned on one swing of the bat
- Mark Potash
- May 29
- 5 min read
Center fielder Albert Almora was part of a string of touted Cubs prospects who made an immediate impact upon being promoted from the minor leagues during the run-up to the 2016 World Series championship — following Starlin Castro (2010), Anthony Rizzo (2012), Javier Baez, Jorge Soler (2014), Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber (2015) and preceding Willson Contreras by 10 days in 2016.
And in some cases, immediate was almost instantaneous:
Castro had six RBIs in his big-league debut.
Rizzo hit .330 with a .919 OPS (six home runs, 15 RBIs) in his first month.
Baez homered to beat the Rockies in his first game.
Soler homered in his very first big-league at-bat and hit .550 with three home runs in his first 20 at-bats (11-for-20).
Bryant hit .409 (9-for-22) with six RBIs in his first week in the big leagues.
Schwarber went 6-for-9 with 4 RBIs in his first two starts.
Contreras homered in his very first at-bat in the big leagues.
Almora's impact was a bit more modest, but he still made his mark as a rookie in 2016. The Cubs' first-round draft pick in 2012 (No. 6 overall) and part of the "Core Four" of prospects considered the foundation of the rebuild (with Bryant, Baez and Soler), Almora hit .277 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 47 games after being called up in June when Soler went on the disabled list. But his forte was defense and he consistently made stellar plays in the field and was a late-inning defensive replacement.
It was enough to make Almora a surprise addition to the playoff roster. And while he did not get a hit in the postseason (0-for-10), he still made an impact — a pretty important one in fact. As a pinch-runner for Kyle Schwarber in the 10th inning of Game 7, Almora alertly advanced to second base on Bryant's deep fly out to center field. After Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked (with first base now open), Almora scored the tie-breaking run on Ben Zobrist's double. The Cubs eventually won the game, 8-7, to win their first World Series in 108 seasons.
Almora was never a Pete Crow-Armstrong-like sensation, but developed into a capable offensive player with Gold Glove-quality defensive ability. He hit .298 in 2017 and .286 in 2018 and was finding a groove in 2019 after a slow start when fate moved its huge hands and sent his career spiraling into oblivion.
On May 29 against the Astros at Minute Maid Park, Almora pulled a sharp line drive into the seats past third base. The ball struck a 2-year-old girl and required immediate emergency care. An eerie silence fell over the stadium in reaction to the incident, play was halted and Almora — immediately aware of what had happened to the fan — was visibly shaken, later in tears and had to be consoled by security personnel and Cubs teammates.
Almora, who had singled in his first at-bat, stayed in the game, but struck out on the next pitch and grounded out in his final two at-bats. Two days later, he talked to reporters in St. Louis and still was emotional about the incident.
"It's tough to answer these questions because I'm not the one hurt," Almora said. "People are praying for me and stuff like that, but ... I'm healthy. My mind's OK; I'm OK. And it's thanks to my teammates, thanks to my family. That's all I can say."
Almora, who was 25 at the time, did his best to move on, but the reality is that he was never the same as a player. He was in a groove in 31 games before the fan incident — hitting .308 with a .587 slugging percentage and .926 OPS (seven home runs, 16 RBIs in 103 at-bats). After the incident, he hit .211 with a .239 slugging percentage and .477 OPS.
Almora finished the 2019 season hitting .236 with a .652 OPS. He struggled in 2020, hitting .167 with .465 OPS and was not re-signed by the Cubs. Almora stayed in the big leagues, but hit .115 with a .321 OPS with the Mets (no home runs, no RBIs in 52 at-bats) in 2021 and .223 with a .631 OPS with the Reds (five home runs, 29 RBIs in 215 at-bats) 2022. He's spent the last three seasons in the minor leagues. At 31, he's currently with the Marlins' Class AAA team in Jacksonville — hitting .198 with one home run and eight RBIs in 91 at-bats.
It's not all that unusual for a player to struggle in the major leagues after having early success. But Almora's demise does not seem like a mystery. By the numbers anyway, his career turned on that fateful day in Houston six years ago. At that moment, his career slash line was .285/.323/.417/.740 in 382 games and 1,092 plate appearances. Since that moment, he hit .203/.250/.310/.561 in the big leagues.
The 2-year-old girl suffered a skull fracture and a "permanent" brain injury as a result of the incident, according to the family's attorney. The family sued the Astros and reached a settlement in 2021. Major League Baseball required all 30 ballparks to have netting extending to the outfield foul poles in 2020, in response to the Almora incident and others.
As for Almora, although he is struggling in Class AAA this season, he did hit .292 with nine home runs and 69 RBIs for the Diamondbacks' Class AAA team at Reno last season. And he's in good spirits and still hoping to make it back to the big leagues.
"I feel like I'm a big leaguer," he told Noah Schlicksup of Schlick Sports earlier this week. "I have almost six years in the show. So, to me, to come out and continue to improve and continue to have that mindset, it's really a credit to myself, honestly, and don't give a lot of credit to myself usually. It's good to say it out loud. I am proud of myself, how I handled myself day-in and day-out — knowing I'm not where I want to be but I don't let that [affect] how I act or how I prepare."
Anyone who remembers him with the Cubs surely is hoping he gets another chance in the big leagues. He deserves to finish on a high note.
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