With a pair of home runs on Saturday, Pete Crow-Armstrong is looking like the offensive weapon the Chicago Cubs need in 2025.
Sure, it's spring training, so the statistics don't really count. However, what has been a very strong spring from the 22-year-old Crow-Armstrong with an inspiring finish to the 2024 campaign, and it's easy to see why Cubs fans are hoping the player known as "PCA" is ready to be an offensive weapon at Wrigley Field this season.
On Saturday against the Seattle Mariners, Crow-Armstrong looked in regular-season form early on, taking an 0-1 pitch from Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert deep over the right field fence to get the Cubs on the board.
One inning later, Crow-Armstrong was back at the plate, this time with the bases loaded. While he may have been facing a different Seattle pitcher (this time, Eduard Bazardo), the result was the same as PCA went opposite field this time for a grand slam.
Crow-Armstrong struck out in the bottom of the fifth, putting the finishing touches on a 2-for-3 day that boosted his spring training batting average to .522 with an OPS of 1.587 thanks to three home runs in 23 spring at-bats.
With the Cubs scheduled to open the season in Tokyo against the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 18, all signs are pointing toward Crow-Armstrong taking a big statistical leap in 2025. Last season, in his first extensive time with the Cubs (410 plate appearances over 123 games), Crow-Armstrong slashed .237/.286/.384 with 10 homers and 47 RBI.
Those numbers are certainly acceptable, but a deeper dive into them reveals a very positive trend. Over the final 215 plate appearances (stretched over 57 games), Crow-Armstrong posted a .289 batting average with an .806 OPS (his overall OPS on the season was .670). According to FanGraphs, he logged 2.2 fWAR from July 27 through the end of the season. That was the 19th-highest mark of all Major League Baseball hitters during that time.
For Crow-Armstrong, however, it's not just about what he can do at the plate. He also can create chaos on the bases.
Last season, PCA went 27-of-30 on stolen base attempts, showcasing his speed which has been measured at 30 feet per second per Baseball Savant. That puts him in the 99th percentile of all MLB players.
Checking out his defensive numbers on Baseball Savant makes one realize that Crow-Armstrong is as much of a weapon in the field as he is on the bases. His 14 Outs Above Average last season tied for sixth among all MLB outfielders while his arm strength of 93 mph ranked 17th among his peers.
While it may be spring, with the regular season beginning in a little more than a week, Crow-Armstrong is on a path toward becoming one of the new faces of the Cubs, in 2025 and beyond.
