Today is probably the last day for Albert Almora, Jr. as a Chicago Cub, more than 8 years after he was the first draft pick of the Epstein/Hoyer regime. Glove was hyped and was indeed great. But approach simply never improved as pitchers took advantage of high-swing/contact.

Some team will pick him up & see what they can do. I hope he figures it out (only 26), which is entirely possible. Cubs have acknowledged that their position player development at the big league level has been woeful since 2015. Guys arrived, and then kinda were what they were.

Almora, for all his potential to be exactly the kind of bat the Cubs have needed, is probably the best example of it. Maybe he was never going to make it as a regular. But it's hard not to feel like Cubs let him down more than the opposite. Best of luck in whatever comes next.

Post-script: as this 3-tweet thread indicates, this latter point was not about playing time or opportunities (Almora got plenty of both). It was about player development. It's clear Cubs failed many of their hitters on that level over the last five years. Like I said. Clearly.

(It's extraordinary to me how *eager* some folks are to disregard the actual words you've said in order to be angry about words you didn't. Stop looking for fights where they don't exist, my friends. We can do better on this particular platform.)