Now in his third big-league spring training with the Chicago Cubs, Pete Crow-Armstrong is no longer wondering when his time will come. Two years ago, he was basking in the novelty of being in big-league camp with the team he grew up rooting for. Last year, fresh off his major-league debut in September and as one of baseball’s top prospects, he was determined to seize an Opening Day roster spot. That is, until those plans were derailed by Cody Bellinger’s late return to the Cubs during spring training, which sent Crow-Armstrong back to Triple-A to open the season.
But this year, there are zero doubts. Crow-Armstrong is the Cubs’ center fielder. It is a certainty that he earned over the course of a rookie season in which his elite speed and defense shined immediately while his bat trended favorably as the year went along.
“I just feel like my place here is a little more meaningful,” Crow-Armstrong told Yahoo Sports earlier this spring. “And I’m so glad to be out of the prospect status and all that stuff.”
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‘Can I trust you to go make the next play?’
For more than a decade, Crow-Armstrong has been on a high-profile path to becoming an every-day center fielder in the major leagues. From competing regularly as part of USA Baseball’s National Team as early as age 12 to playing for a high school program known for churning out big leaguers, he has always been in the spotlight. That attention was amplified further early in his pro career, when Crow-Armstrong was traded to the Cubs in exchange for Javier Baez just a year after he was drafted 19th overall by the Mets. His stock continued to soar as he climbed the minors, culminating in his big-league debut at age 21.
Now, after years of promise and projection, the player known as PCA has arrived. It’s no longer about what he can do to reach the next level; it’s about what he can do to be the best he can be at the highest level. As Crow-Armstrong pointed out: “There’s nowhere else to go.”
And with a year of big-league reps under his belt and his role on the Cubs finally secure, Crow-Armstrong is embracing an opportunity that has been a lifetime in the making.
“Last year was super informative,” the soon-to-be 23-year-old said of his rookie campaign, in which he started 109 games in center field for the Cubs, including 63 of Chicago’s 64 games after the All-Star break.
“There was not much that was really asked of me last year further than, ‘Can you just show us that you’re ready to go play nine every day?’” he said. “And that made my life really easy once I grasped a much better understanding of what that really meant.
“You want to go 3-for-4 every day, but the game’s too hard, and nobody in the clubhouse expects me to do that. So why would I be putting that pressure on myself if everyone else is just, ‘Hey, can you go put a ball in your glove when it matters?’”
While it took some time for that mindset to take root, manager Craig Counsell had planted the seeds in spring training last year, during his first meeting with the young outfielder.
“He just kept it really simple with me. He used [Brewers second baseman Brice] Turang as reference,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And I think that was a great comparison just because we hail from the same area and similar style of play.”
Crow-Armstrong and Turang were both regulars on the showcase circuit for years before becoming first-round picks from Los Angeles-area high schools, Turang out of Santiago in 2018 and Crow-Armstrong out of Harvard-Westlake in 2020. After competing against each other as amateurs, the two now share a division in the bigs.
“He said that all he asked of Brice his rookie year was that Brice just be able to go make the next play,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Whether he just hit the game-tying homer or just punched out with the bases loaded, it’s like: ‘Can I trust you to go make the next play?’
“When he uses a word like ‘trust,’ it’s like, OK, that’s what it’s about. It’s not will I make the next play, because obviously I will or I won’t — sometimes the ball doesn’t get caught — but can he trust me to go do that?”
‘I had to put in my time failing‘
Looking back, Turang’s offensive output his first season was actually quite poor: His 61 wRC+ ranked 210th out of 212 hitters with at least 400 plate appearances. But his exceptional defense at an up-the-middle position made him worthy of regular reps. And getting so much playing time as a rookie set the stage for Turang to improve his game considerably as a sophomore. With an uptick in production at the plate to a more palatable 87 wRC+, a whopping 50 stolen bases and continued excellence at the keystone that earned him the Platinum Glove Award as the best overall defender in the National League, Turang rated as one of the most valuable players at his position in 2024.
A similar leap could be in store for Crow-Armstrong in 2025, especially coming off a rookie season that offered even more reason for optimism. Although he did not make the Cubs’ 2024 Opening Day roster, Crow-Armstrong was recalled from Triple-A on April 24, after Bellinger went on the IL due to a rib injury. He homered the next day for his first major-league hit, an exhilarating reintroduction to the big leagues.
But it was nearly three months before Crow-Armstrong left the yard for Chicago again. He hit .192/.238/.241 (38 wRC+) in May and June, even being demoted to Triple-A for a brief stretch along the way. He finally ended his dinger drought with a surprise two-homer performance in the Cubs’ final game before the All-Star break, but after that, the struggles resumed, with an 0-for-20 stretch in the first six games of the second half dropping his season OPS to a paltry .523.
And then he turned a corner. From July 27 through the end of the season, Crow-Armstrong hit .289/.336/.469 in 215 plate appearances in the Cubs’ final 57 games. Combined with his great glovework and standout baserunning, his 123 wRC+ made him one of the most valuable players in MLB. His 2.2 fWAR tied with Gunnar Henderson for 19th in MLB over that span.
“I needed the reps, and I needed to suck,” Crow-Armstrong said of his first-half woes at the plate. “I just had to put in my time. I had to put in my time failing. And it was really hard while that happened. But the funny part is, that uphill climb … it’s like, I was able to start appreciating my little wins a little bit more.”
The strong finish gave Crow-Armstrong the confidence to not make any drastic offensive adjustments over the winter, compared to past offseasons that featured more substantial alterations to his swing.
“Using a 34[-inch bat] instead of a 33-and-a-half — that’s the biggest change I made offensively,” he said. “This offseason was a full focus on finding something that’s consistent, just a consistent move. Because I know the pitching is not gonna be any easier.”
‘I just don’t think I gave myself enough credit’
Early returns this spring have been encouraging. Crow-Armstrong has been one of the most productive (and entertaining) hitters in the Cactus League, highlighted by a two-homer performance that included a grand slam to straightaway center field at Sloan Park. His zero walks and seven strikeouts in 26 plate appearances are a sobering reminder of his most glaring weakness — a proclivity to chase outside the zone that could hamper his overall on-base ability — but the flashes of impact help counterbalance those concerns.
As PCA continues to refine his skills as a hitter, he remains laser-focused on maximizing the value he can provide with his glove and wheels. By most metrics, this is where he has already proven to be one of the more impactful players in the league. With fantastic range and an arm that rates as one of the strongest in baseball, Crow-Armstrong was tied with Daulton Varsho and Jacob Young for first among outfielders in Fielding Run Value in 2024.
But ask the player whose glovework has been highly touted since he was a teenager to assess his big-league defensive debut, and you’ll get a different answer:
“I didn’t think I played all that good defense last year,” said Crow-Armstrong, who is quicker to reference the rare flubs than reflect fondly on the best plays from his highlight reel. Specifically, he mentioned a missed catch at Citi Field that still bothers him.
“That was always my saving grace was being able to go pick myself up on defense,” he said. “I felt like I lost it for a while last year and then got it back.”
It took a while for Crow-Armstrong to get comfortable roaming big-league outfields. Far too frequently, he misread how long it would take to get to fly balls. He admits that he was often over-running balls or diving on plays that didn’t warrant it.
“I just don’t think I gave myself enough credit,” he said of his glove’s transition to the majors. “I don’t think I was able to remind myself that I’m the same defender. If anything, that’s the one thing that is the most similar to what happens in the minor leagues.”
By the end of the season, it was clear that Crow-Armstrong had course-corrected more than enough to rate as an upper-echelon defender. And this spring, he has been working hard with Quintin Berry and Jose Javier — new faces on the Cubs’ coaching staff — to master the craft further.
“They came to me about my prep step,” Crow-Armstrong said of how his feet are set the moment the pitch enters the hitting zone. “To them — and I trust them on this — that’s gonna change everything.”
‘You’re literally going in standing up on anybody’
When the standard is sky-high, there’s always room for improvement. It isn’t lost on Crow-Armstrong that he wasn’t a finalist for the Gold Glove Award last year. He’s striving to be in the mix for the award sooner rather than later.
As the first- and third-base coaches, Javier and Berry are also playing an integral part in helping their pupil reach the next level as a baserunner. Crow-Armstrong’s 99th-percentile sprint speed enables meaningful impact on the basepaths on its own. But he has also learned just how much easier basestealing can become with the right information.
“Headphones on in my locker, iPad in front of me, four different tabs open, music in my ears, and I’m just clicking and clicking and clicking, watching pick-offs and all this stuff,” he said. “I have really come to like studying pitchers’ moves.”
It’s a routine he developed with the help of former first-base coach Mike Napoli, who quickly noticed when Crow-Armstrong was able to translate knowledge gained into stolen bases.
“[Napoli] was like, ‘I can tell when you’re a little hesitant or a little scared to go forward … but when you’re getting a confident jump, you’re literally going in standing up on anybody.’ And that proved to be true for 20 — however many — bags.”
As a rookie, Crow-Armstrong stole 27 bases while being caught only three times, an ultra-efficient rate. Increased ambition combined with expanding understanding of his opponents could result in a sharp uptick in swipes in Year 2.
“I don’t need to run all the time if we’re banging,” said Crow-Armstrong, acknowledging that his aggressiveness on the basepaths will be dictated in part by how he and the rest of the offense are performing. “But, like, wind’s blowing in one day? Absolutely, I’m f***ing running.
“Now that I have all this info … I’ve already tried running on so many guys, I can just take that into this year.”
It’s clear that his rookie year taught Crow-Armstrong a ton. But beyond all the lessons that will help him fundamentally improve as a player, one of his favorite perks of being an every-day center fielder in the major leagues is getting to interact with the fans who loom behind him in the outfield. This dynamic hasn’t always been pleasant — Crow-Armstrong admits that a younger version of himself would snap at road spectators in certain minor-league cities — but now, with the daily opportunity to play a kids’ game in the best venues the sport has to offer, his perspective has shifted.
“Now I’m in L.A., and it’s all the Dodgers fans that I sat with growing up,” Crow-Armstrong said of his September stop at Dodger Stadium, where his glove shined. “I was having so much fun with opposing fans last year, and then, obviously, with the people at Wrigley. But like, gosh, feeling like I gained an opposing fans’ respect felt f***ing awesome.”
The Cubs will soon head to Japan for their season-opening series against the Dodgers in Tokyo, an exciting beginning to what could be a special season on the North Side. But for Crow-Armstrong, who visualized the experience of playing in front of a packed Wrigley Field long before it became his reality, Chicago’s home opener on April 4 can’t come soon enough.
“Being at Wrigley, the most fun part is the buzz behind you, all the stuff going on behind you. It is so fun.”
