How Abraham Almonte Turned the Tribe Around

On August 7th, the Cleveland Indians traded Michael Bourn to the Atlanta Braves in a salary dump that included Nick Swisher and netted the team Chris Johnson. One day later, Abraham Almonte, who had himself been picked up in the much smaller salary dump of Marc Rzepczynski to San Diego, made his Cleveland debut. Through August 7th, the Indians were ten games under .500 at 49-59, 8.5 games back in the Wild Card race behind eight teams. Since then, they have gone 20-11 and sit just 4.5 games back behind only three teams. Quite possibly the single player that has had the most to do with that change was Abraham Almonte.

While he isn’t the greatest hitter on the team, that’s Michael Brantley, or the greatest defender, that’s Francisco Lindor, he is the biggest difference. Lindor joined the team in early June and while his and Giovanny Urshella’s improved defense helped much, is wasn’t enough as the Indians went 22-30 from June 7th through August 7th. In a similar fashion, the bats of Brantley and Jason Kipnis have been with the team all season and in the case of Kipnis, were actually much hotter when the Indians were losing early in the season.

To show how big of a difference Almonte has really made, we need to compare him to the player he directly replaced, Michael Bourn. The chart below shows a small comparison of numbers both simple and advanced.

Incredibly, Almonte already has more total extra base hits than Bourn, despite having more than 200 less plate appearances and 65 less games. His slash line being significantly better isn’t too difficult considering that Bourn was one of the worst hitters in baseball this year, but it is certainly greater than one would expect from a project who had never batted over .265 in his three year Major League career. Considering that the Yankees, Mariners and Padres have all given up on the 26 year old, anything above league average would have been considered a bonus and he has certainly been that.

To compare a little more fairly, here are a few of the counting stats extrapolated for each player to 500 plate appearances.

While neither player will reach this mark this year, it is a nice round number that a normal starter would easily surpass in a regular season. It also makes Bourn’s failure’s much more apparent and shows what kind of player Almonte has been. While those aren’t All-Star caliber numbers, they are extremely good compared to what the Indians were receiving. In actual WAR, Almonte has already been worth 1.5 more wins than Bourn in a third of the games. Over a season, this could extrapolate out to six more wins, an extremely significant number for any player.

While Almonte has obviously been a better hitter, his true value lies in his defense. Prior to his advancement, the Indians center field defense was atrocious, not just with Bourn, but when Michael Brantley and Mike Aviles played there as well. Since, Almonte has already been seven runs better than Bourn and expanded to 150 games, his UZR is about 31 runs better. Looks can be deceiving when you first take in Almonte’s broad shoulders in center, but he is considerably faster than any of the other Indians outfielders on the current roster. Add into that better instincts than all the other center field options this year and the Indians finally have an outfield they can not be embarrassed by.

Another aspect of his speed has been his ability to bunt. Unlike Lindor, who has been giving outs away since he was promoted, Almonte bunts for hits and does an extremely good job of it. He has perfected the drag bunt and used it to reach successfully several times this year. Even if he can’t sustain his current batting line, he would be useful to the Indians roster as a pinch runner, pinch hitter, defensive replacement and simply a guy who can get things started.

In his first game with the team, Almonte hit two doubles, a home run, knocked in two and scored three runs as the Tribe beat the Twins 17-4. While his contribution wasn’t necessarily needed in that particular blow out win, he was a catalyst who brought excitement back to the team. He stretched that game into a six game hitting streak and was huge in the Indians August 14th win against the Twins as well.

Even when he went through a mini-slump from August 15th through the 22nd, batting just .111 (.136 BABIP) with no extra base hits and 2 RBI in eight games, he was still a valuable defensive member of the club. Since then, however, he has really lit things up. After breaking out of the slump with a triple and an RBI in a one run win against the Yankees on August 23rd he has batted .320 with an OPS of 1.002 thanks to four triples and two home runs. Continuing to help the team win, he scored runs in each of the Indians last two games against the Tigers on September 10th and the White Sox on the 9th. Both were two run Indians wins and while Brantley was the hero twice over in the latter, if it weren’t for Almonte’s home run and triple, his heroics wouldn’t have been enough to win the game.

There’s no way to tell whether Almonte will continue this level of play in the future, but there is a lot to like right now. His BABIP of .313 since joining the team isn’t absurd, especially considering his speed and line drive tendencies. If he ever gets in too big of a slump, he can drop that bunt down and instead of giving away a free out, make the defense work to earn it. With so many question marks in the offense going into 2016, Almonte is at least one possible answer and has already done enough to deserve a spot on the 25 man roster for quite awhile.