Pete Crow-Armstrong is one of the Chicago Cubs young bright stars and they’ll need him to have a breakout season in 2025.
The Chicago Cubs have a nice crop of young stars coming up for 2025. Such as number one prospect Matt Shaw set to compete to win the starting third base job according to President of Baseball Ops Jed Hoyer. However another one of those young stars whose name is Pete Crow-Armstrong, is already making a name for himself in the big leagues.
Pete Crow-Armstrong
The 22-year-old Pete Crow-Armstrong was drafted by the New York Mets in the first round (19th overall) in the 2020 MLB June Amateur Draft. The Chicago Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong in a trade which sent long time Cubs shortstop Javier Báez and pitcher Trevor Williams as well as cash consideration over to the New York Mets in exchange for Crow-Armstrong. Crow-Armstrong made his debut on September 11th, 2023 against the Colorado Rockies where he didn’t have an at-bat.
The 2024 season marked Crow-Armstrongs second season with the Chicago Cubs where he had a decent showing and bodes well for him to take the next step in his development in 2025. In 123 games for the Cubs in 2024 Crow-Armstrong collected 88 hits, 13 doubles, 6 triples, 10 HRs, 47 RBI, 27 stolen bases (caught stealing 3 times) with a slash line of .237/.286/.384 and an OPS and OPS+ of .670 and 88.
A soil sophomoric campaign for the youngster who when doing a deeper dive on had a better season than the numbers provide. Defensively Crow-Armstrong ranks as one of the best centerfielders in the game. Ranking in the 99th percentile for his fielding run value (16) as well as the 98th percentile for both Range (14) and Arm Value (4) Crow-Armstrong’s defensive is invaluable to the Cubs.
What really shapes out well for Pete Crow-Armstrong is how good of a second half he had after the All-Star break. After the break Crow-Armstrong in 63 games collected 56 hits, 8 doubles, 3 triples, 7 HRs, 30 RBI, 10 stolen bags for a .262/.310/.425 and an OPS of .735.
Confidence in Pete
The Cubs are showing a lot of confidence in Crow-Armstrong for this coming season with their move to trade away first basemen/outfielder Cody Bellinger. When Bellinger was still on the roster Crow-Armstrong would’ve had a competition for the starting job in center, and given the money Bellinger was owed he would’ve won out in the positional battle. Now that he is no longer with the team, Crow-Armstrong can go out and play everyday knowing he is the starting centerfielder!
The things the Cubs will need Crow-Armstrong to accomplish this off season to come into Spring Training prepared is he needs to put the ball in play more and become a gap hitter. Having thirteen doubles and having six triples for a 22-year-old in his second Major League season is good, but for Crow-Armstrong to become a great player he needs to get that total closer to 30.
Crow-Armstrong will also need up his stolen base totals as well. Showing the ability to run whenever he gets on I don’t think Crow-Armstrong will have any trouble getting closer to 40 stolen bases in a season if he starts putting the ball in play and getting on base.
Accomplishing both of these priorities would be a huge step in PCAs development. These steps are crucial to not only PCA finding success in the Major Leagues, but for the Cubs to be a great team. If he is able to accomplish all this as well as getting his average at somewhere around the .270 range, the Cubs will have a lockdown start centerfielder for years to come!
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