AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Crow-Armstrong, Amaya Continue to Show Benefits of Playing Through Struggles

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanAugust 24, 2024

Remember last year when both Nelson Velázquez and Alexander Canario were on the bench the day after hitting grand slams? How about when the latter could have provided an offensive spark for a team that desperately needed a little youthful energy and mainly sat on the bench as the Cubs favored the players that had gotten them to that point? That stubborn reluctance, or outright refusal in some cases, to develop young players was part of what led to David Ross being replaced by Craig Counsell over the winter.

And wouldn’t you know it, Counsell’s willingness to let some of his guys gain experience despite a lack of immediate production had some questioning his fitness. As we’ve seen over the last month or more, however, some of those early growing pains have resulted in the players at the bottom of the lineup producing in a very big way. What follows will be very brief since I just realized I’ve got multiple other posts to write in addition to running a variety of errands.

I could have sworn I wrote something about this just a week or to ago, but turns out I had just tweeted about it. Or maybe I did write about it and just can’t find it. Weird.

Anyway, Pete Crow-Armstrong was batting just .186 with a .505 OPS and a 44 wRC+ through his first 190 plate appearances. All he’s done since is bat .299 with an .878 OPS and 139 wRC+ over his last 83 plate appearances. That’s enough of a sample to know it’s not just a matter of luck, plus he just looks a lot more comfortable out there.

Then you’ve got the exploits like his inside-the-park homer in Miami on Friday night.

Amaya’s first 195 PAs generated very similar results to his teammate: .180 avg, .522 OPS, and 46 wRC+ with a bigger leg kick. After a little brainstorming with coaches and some folks outside the organization, hitting coach Dustin Kelly helped Amaya to adopt a quieter move that has since had him making louder noises. Over his last 89 trips to the plate, he’s batting .309 with an .892 OPS and a 148 wRC+ that includes five homers.

One of those capped off the Friday’s win.

Maybe those Logan O’Hoppe rumors fired him up a little too. Whatever the case, having the eight and nine hitters in the lineup performing like this makes the Cubs a helluva lot more fun to watch. No one likes to struggle and we can all agree that it would have been awesome if the whole season looked like this, but having these two players emerge, and at premium defensive positions to boot, could allow Jed Hoyer to be more targeted over the winter.

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanAugust 24, 2024
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