Count Justin Steele among Miguel Amaya’s victims
Miguel Amaya has been red-hot over the last two months.
It’s coming at no surprise to his Cubs teammate, Justin Steele.
[WATCH: Amaya crushes 1st career grand slam]
Steele saw Amaya at the alternate site in 2020 when both were Cubs prospects just trying to find their way to the big leagues.
“I always speak back to that alt site in 2020 when he was still so young at the time,” Steele said Thursday afternoon. “He was, to me, one of the scariest at-bats at that alt site in 2020 and that was obviously four years ago now.
“For me, it’s no surprise watching him have this level of success at the big-league level. I’ve always known that it was in there and it just makes me happy and very proud of him for having this level of success because I know how hard he’s worked for many years.”
Patrick Wisdom and Christopher Morel were among the other hitters at the alternate site for the Cubs in South Bend during that summer of 2020 so it says something that Steele pointed to Amaya as one of the toughest at-bats.
Amaya certainly remembers facing Steele at the alternate site.
“I took him deep,” he said, smiling.
Amaya did add more context once the laughter from the Chicago media subsided.
“After a couple strikeouts, though,” he said. “But it was a great year over there, working with each other. And now we’re here playing in the bigs together.”
The young catcher homered again Friday for the 2nd straight game, sending a 2-run shot out to center in Miami.
He is now hitting .309/.349/.543 (.892 OPS) in 28 games (26 starts) since July 7. That was the point where Craig Counsell gave Amaya three straight days off to work with the Cubs coaching staff on making an adjustment in his stance and swing.
Prior to that stretch, Amaya was hitting .186/.249/.256 (.505 OPS) in 63 games (55 starts).