The Chicago Cubs have plans to keep 22-year-old center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong around for a long time. Because of that, he just had to have a single-digit number befitting his station in baseball life.
The question was how to get the fleet-footed sophomore to change from his no. 52.
That’s where president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer got creative.
The Bet That Resulted In A Jersey Change
Crow-Armstrong, Dansby Swanson, and Nicky Lopez were shooting hoops at the Cubs’ spring training complex in Mesa when Hoyer came up and started jabbing at the one-time top prospect about his ‘linebacker’s number’ and how he needed a “fast guy” jersey number.
The veteran exec grabbed the ball and proposed that if he made the next shot, “PCA” would have to change his number.
Challenge accepted.
Hoyer would proceed to sink the shot from about twelve feet out. Pete Crow-Armstrong would now wear the number 4 on his jersey, a number left behind by the recently DFA’d Alexander Canario.
“I Should’ve Pushed Him Back”
“He was just kind of talking smack,” Crow-Armstrong laughed, while recalling the Hoyer wager. “He said if he makes a shot, I’ve got to change it. I was like, ‘That’s fun. Why not? Let’s do it…I probably should’ve pushed him back.”
The young star would expand on Hoyer’s positive relationship with the players and his interactive approach to doing his job.
“He’s really good at that,” Crow-Armstrong added. “He’s good at being around us, and he’s good at the mingling portion of our days. He could be upstairs, but he’s down here and interacting with us. And I always appreciated that about him.’’
“PCA” would debut his new jersey number this past Friday at the Cubs’ Sloan Park with a double in the left-center gap against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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No matter what number he sports on his jersey (or design he has sprayed into his hair), though, Crow-Armstrong stands to play a major role in the Cubs’ hopes for success this coming season.
Last year, after some struggles at the plate early in the season and a return to the minors because of it, he would come back with his same high-energy game, but with a few things figured out with the bat. The then-rookie would post a .277 batting average with 7 home runs, and an OPS of .786 over 55 games, with a stellar .314 average in the month of August.
Already regarded as one of the elite defenders in center field, Crow-Armstrong is projected by many to be one of the top glove-and-run players in all of baseball, with the ability to break games open with his running ability and shut things down with his defensive prowess. He’ll man a prime spot in an already very good outfield, between left fielder Ian Happ and new right fielder Kyle Tucker
Seasoning and practical confidence are all he needs– and Hoyer’s pitch to give him a jersey number more befitting a full-time roster member is an effort to let the growing baseball asset know that the major league roster is now his home.
“He plays the game with confidence and swagger,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner recently commented, regarding Crow-Armstrong. “And I think it would be easy to criticize if it didn’t feel genuine, but it’s who he is, it’s how he lives his life. All that energy and excitement that you see is the same energy he pours into us as teammates and into winning games.
“If it was an energy that was selfish or just about social media or something stupid, then that’d be one thing. But Pete’s here every day for the group and for all of us, and he has fun and he plays the game hard and he plays to win. That’s everything you can ask for from a teammate, and that’s all that really matters.”
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