Chicago Cubs: 3 takeaways from San Diego Padres series
By Ryan Sikes
Joe Maddon’s decison to have Albert Almora leading off Friday and Saturday was pretty questionable.
Albert Almora led off the Chicago Cubs batting order on both Friday and Saturday with many fans wondering…why? Including this weekend’s series, Almora is slashing 0.237/0.250/0.322 in the lead off spot this season. He’s been pretty lousy all year long hitting 0.239 in 2019, and I truly believe it’s just a matter of time before Ian Happ is called up.
Happ will either replace Almora as the every day centerfielder or the Cubs will trade for an outfielder that will cause Jason Heyward to slide over to centerfield. I am not sure if the Cubs front office thought that Almora would get better with more at-bats but it’s, in fact, been the complete opposite.
He should probably return back a platoon position, but he’ll continue to see every day playing time until the Cubs make a move.
I feel like we’ve beaten this topic to death but the second base position needs a resolution. Addison Russell has been playing entirely too much. Saturday’s display is something that is going to stick with Cubs fans for quite a while, especially if he keeps batting just 0.243. Garcia has done well so far, though it’s been an extremely small sample size, but they have enough of a sample size from Russell to know he’s not the answer.
Add to this that Daniel Descalso has had just 3 at-bats since the All-Star break, I like to think that Theo Epstein is going to be proactive in fixing this situation but this is where the team misses Ben Zobrist. We should know something soon if he will return or not, but the Cubs have to plan as if he won’t be returning this year.
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If he does, great, but this team is clearly lacking that veteran presence that holds the younger players accountable and is a leader in the clubhouse. The Cubs were fortunate to win 2-of-3 in this series as they could have very easily been swept. Now they head out on a nine-game road trip and will try to improve upon a an 18-27 road record.