Cubs Quick Hits: Almora’s Slump Highlighted By Excessive Weak Contact

Albert Almora Jr. had an impressive May, producing 8% more runs than an average hitter, but his production has fallen off a cliff since the calendar turned. The centerfielder with a perfect Welcome Back Kotter coif has created 80% fewer runs than the MLB average in June thanks to lots of weak contact.

At his peak, nearly 40% of Almora’s contact was classified as hard, well above the league-average (35%). In his last 50 batted-ball sample, however, the 25-year-old has only made hard contact on roughly 22% of the time.

If this was just a matter of Almora’s plummeting hard-hit rate, there’s wouldn’t be cause for concern. But the Cubs’ outfield depth is shaky as Carlos González has been ineffective, Ian Happ continues to fight through adjustments at Triple-A, and Ben Zobrist remains absent with no firm information on his return.

If Almora continues to make such weak contact, we might soon be discussing the Cubs’ activity on the position-player trade market.