The Best News of the Cubs' Month (So Far) Might Just Be Miguel Amaya's Progress

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While a catching catastrophe is partly to blame for the Cubs' lousy season, there's some renewed hope around their young, homegrown backstop.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports

As discouraging as much of the 2024 Chicago Cubs offense has been, the absence of production from behind the plate has been almost dispiriting. A tag-team plan that began with Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes has been disappointing enough to see half the unit jettisoned from the roster, while the other has ceded playing time to a player not even in the organization until the middle of June, in Tomás Nido.

While the seemingly immediate decline of Gomes’s glove and bat was a disappointing result for a steady veteran, it’s the struggle from Amaya that has been far more difficult to stomach. This was supposed to be the year that the longtime farmhand latched onto the starting job and grabbed the “catcher of the future” label. Instead, we’ve been collectively counting the days until Moises Ballesteros makes his Wrigley Field debut. That was the case until July, at least. 

On Jul. 3, Amaya was hitting .186 and featured a .249 on-base percentage. He hadn’t recorded a hit since Jun. 26 and had started losing significant playing time to Nido. The Cubs gave Amaya a small stretch of days off to work on his swing mechanics. The result was a more subtle leg kick, in pursuit of something resembling a two-strike approach at all times. The results have been striking.

In 29 July plate appearances, Amaya is hitting .458. He hasn’t struck out in seven games. His 13.8 K% is his lowest individual month thus far, while his 13.8 BB% represents nearly double any other individual month--although, of course, it's still a minuscule sample. His .167 ISO is also notable, following a .055 mark in May and an .035 in June. His wRC+ for the month sits at a wild 232.

The stretch runs Amaya’s overall output into something far more enticing out of the catcher position. He’s at a .223/.290/.306 slash and a 75 wRC+. The numbers are, obviously, still subpar. But this is a far cry from where he was at the beginning of this month. That very much speaks to how Amaya has taken to the changes in his swing and approach.

It’s a small sample, but one that has the potential to alter the trajectory of the Cubs’ future at the position if even remotely sustainable. A woeful year by Amaya had the fan base searching for alternatives behind the dish. Danny Jansen and Elías Díaz were hot names, until it became clear that the team wouldn't be deadline buyers, and Ballesteros started catching more eyes as a longer-term option. While the Cubs aren’t going to acquire a pending free agent like Jansen, Amaya showcasing any level of steadiness can stave off any catching pursuits altogether. This would allow them to allocate their resources elsewhere.

As far as Ballesteros goes, there are questions about his ability to catch full-time. Should the Cubs choose to give him a cup of coffee before year’s end, there isn’t any pressure to throw him behind the plate full-time. They can, instead, deploy him out of the designated hitter slot more frequently.

Again, we’re dealing with a stretch of time in which nothing firm can be declared. But Miguel Amaya reestablishing that upward trajectory can do a lot of things for the Cubs, both at the position itself and elsewhere on the roster.

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