Pete Crow-Armstrong Building Case as Best Player Ever
It’s up to you to determine just how seriously you’d like to take that headline — and yourself, for that matter — but Pete Crow-Armstrong whacked two homers on Saturday and collected his 13th hit Sunday to move into a tie with Michael Busch for the Cactus League lead. PCA’s nine runs scored also lead the league, which is what happens when you reach base half the time you step to the plate. The speedster’s impressive and somewhat paradoxical .520/.500/1.040 slash line has got some folks speaking in hyperbole.
“He’s the best player I’ve ever seen,” third base coach Quintin Berry said with a sly grin during Sunday’s game. “He’s putting on a show. He can run. He’s strong.”
Now, I know many among you will quickly brush all of this aside with the entirely valid caveat that none of it matters because it’s spring training. Then you’ve got the dry desert air providing a much more comfortable hitting environment than Chicago in April. But consider that two of Crow-Armstrong’s homers have come against AL Cy Young contenders Cole Ragans and Logan Gilbert as he routinely gets early at-bats against legit starters.
And while not even PCA himself believes he’ll carry this exact measure of success into the regular season, the point is that he’s displaying more of the power and hit tools often seen as the least developed of his five. His floor is incredibly high due to his elite defense and speed, so adding just a little more pop would make him incredibly dangerous.
“I definitely want to take pride in eventually becoming that well-rounded player,” Crow-Armstrong said recently. “And I think that I’m setting myself up well to do that. That’s the goal at the end of the day, is to go play Gold Glove defense first and foremost, and then be able to produce wherever I’m at in the lineup.”
Despite what a surprisingly large number of haters, even among Cubs fans, seem to believe, Crow-Armstong did produce quite well last season. After a slow first half, he rebounded to post 2.7 fWAR with 10 homers. His .148 ISO on the season was just eight points below the league average, but his .164 mark in the second half was eight points above his peers.
So is he aiming for more homers in his sophomore campaign?
“Nah, the goal is doubles I think,” PCA told reporters after Saturday’s two-homer explosion. “I wanna put the ball in the gap and I wanna run. Mainly, I just like to see myself on base. That’s where I can create a lot.”
That’s where he’s at his best, causing chaos on the bases like a latter-day version of the man the Mets traded him away to acquire. Though owner Steve Cohen is more than able to spend through mistakes, as we saw with their signing of Juan Soto, that deal is going to live rent-free in the Mets’ heads for years to come. Anyone remember when fans on both sides were proposing a PCA-for-Polar Bear swap because all Petes are apparently created equal?
Look, I get that a lot of us are hyping this kid up to a tremendous degree and that it grates on those who feel plain steel-cut oatmeal is too flashy. But even with league-average offensive production, we’re talking about a 4-WAR player, easy. If PCA can get to 15+ homers, he’s got a strong argument as the Cubs’ best player on an annual basis.
Regardless, he’ll be their most fun player to watch.
