Breland Almadova

From BR Bullpen

Breland England Kamaliihoolua Almadova
(The Stylin’ Hawaiian)

BR Minors page

Biographical Information[edit]

Breland Almadova's affiliated career lasted parts of only four seasons before he was released in 2016. However, this truly is only a small fraction of the colorful outfielder's winding baseball story.

Almadova was born and raised in Honolulu, HI, where he attended 'Iolani High School. After graduating, he attended the University of Hawaii, where he was a starter in his sophomore and junior seasons. His production with the Rainbow Warriors caught the eye of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who selected him in the 37th round of the 2012 amateur draft.

Assigned to the Pioneer League's Missoula Osprey to start his professional career, Almadova was productive, hitting .306 with 17 doubles and 11 stolen bases in 64 contests, earning him a promotion to the Midwest League's South Bend Silver Hawks to start the following season. At this point his production backed up, as he limped to a .237/.321/.348 slash line in 116 contests. Returning to South Bend to start the 2014 season, Almadova's production ticked back up again, as he slashed .269/.367/.391 in 90 games while stealing 26 bases, earning him a promotion to the California League's Visalia Rawhide that July, with whom he'd hit .295/.344/.382 in 42 more games. In 132 total games that year, he hit .278 with 35 stolen bases. Returning to Visalia for the 2015 season, Almadova hit .273/.348/.375 while stealing 25 bases in 105 games. On April 1, 2016, he was released by the Diamondbacks.

At this point, Almadova turned to the independent leagues for work. He signed with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association for the 2016 season, and remained with the club through 2017. The following season, Almadova joined the Sussex County Miners of the Canadian-American Association, helping the club to a league title. He made the jump to the Atlantic League in 2019, joining the High Point Rockers for their inaugural season. Almadova earned All-Star honors that year, but after an injury was traded back to Sussex County.

2020 was an unusual season for Almadova. The COVID-19 pandemic's onset threw the baseball world upside down. In the madness, he started a smoothie business with former Minors teammate Jamie Westbrook, then got back to baseball in the makeshift Constellation Energy League, where he played in 21 total games, 20 coming with the Sugar Land Lightning Sloths, where Jamie ironically would earn team MVP plaudits. In September, he joined the Winnipeg Goldeyes, now in the American Association, for nine contests. 2021 was a tough season for Almadova, who didn't make it out of spring training with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League. He then joined the Houston Apollos, the American Association's traveling team, before returning to the Atlantic League, first with the Long Island Ducks, then with the Lexington Legends, who were in their first year as an independent club. Almadova would win the Atlantic League crown with Lexington that year.

2022 represented an unexpected turning point in Almadova's career. He started the year with the Savannah Bananas, a barnstorming team that left the collegiate summer ranks to play "banana ball", a variation of baseball involving silly antics and fan participation. Almadova was part of their inaugural "Banana Ball World Tour" as a member of the Bananas' counterparts, the Party Animals, where he became a hit with the fans. He had brief stints with the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes, Gateway Grizzlies, and Washington Wild Things later that year, but it all came back to Savannah, with whom he returned to late that year, before again being a member of the World Tour in 2023.

Dismissed by Savannah in July of 2023, Almadova once again opened a new chapter in his career - coaching. He signed on with Henry J. Kaiser High School as an outfield coach in a volunteer capacity that year. In 2024, he returned to tried and true baseball, now for the first time on another continent - Europe. He signed with the Třebíč Nuclears of the Czech Republic's Extraliga in a player-coach role, where he went 9-for-45 in 14 contests before being released in June. Later that summer, he signed with the München-Haar Disciples of Germany's Bundesliga, where his production improved. Meanwhile, he managed six games for München-Haar's 2nd division side in an interim capacity, going 2-4.

Related Sites[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Breland_Almadova&oldid=1402169"