Head-turning PCA extension comments puts ball in Tom Ricketts and Jed Hoyer's court

One of the big storylines early in the season was the reported contract extension talks between the Chicago Cubs and outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. He was coming off a strong finish to the 2024 season and the hope was that he could carry that production throughout an entire 162-game season.

That hope proved well-founded, with PCA not only being productive offensively but also establishing himself as one of the most all-around valuable players in Major League Baseball heading into late June. Entering Monday's contest in St. Louis, FanGraphs has Crow-Armstrong tied for third in MLB in fWAR (3.9), trailing only Aaron Judge (6.0) and Cal Raleigh (5.1), the latter of whom decimated Cubs pitching last weekend at Wrigley.

Pete Crow-Armstrong makes it clear: he wants to be a Cub for a long time

The price tag is nowhere close to where it was back in the spring. The soon-to-be first-time All-Star has played like an MVP and is going to be looking for MVP-level money. But in terms of enthusiasm about signing with the Cubs long-term, Crow-Armstrong has reached a fever pitch based on his latest comments about signing an extension with Chicago.

“That’s the goal. I think what’s important to me is being somewhere I feel convicted in winning at. And then obviously where I feel comfortable playing and living for a long period of time ... I absolutely think that Chicago is a place to do that for me. I already take so much pride in being a Cub, and what comes with that. Any way that we can get me here for a while, I think, would be ideal.”

The ball is now firmly in the court of Cubs president of baseball ops Jed Hoyer and team owner Tom Ricketts. The team already faces a looming free agent pursuit of Kyle Tucker at season's end - and with Crow-Armstrong still playing on his rookie contract, the club might focus their efforts elsewhere for the time being.

But if PCA continues to be must-see TV, as he has for the better part of two months, the calls for an extension are only going to get louder from fans. It's been decades since the Cubs extended a homegrown player past his rookie deal - and a player as electric as Crow-Armstrong is something this team has lacked for years now.

Will Hoyer and Ricketts rise to the occasion? If they do, it could start shifting the industry-wide perception about the Cubs and their unwillingness to act like a true big-market team. But the takeaway for fans in the meantime is regardless of an extension, Pete Crow-Armstrong will be patrolling center field at Wrigley for the rest of the decade.