Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong Turning Into Star Following Rookie Struggles
Pete Crow-Armstrong always had the makings of a star.
The New York Mets selected the speedy center fielder in the first round of the 2020 amateur draft with the 19th pick from Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. Two years later, the Chicago Cubs traded two major-league players, shortstop Javier Baez and right-hander Travis Williams, to the Mets for Crow-Armstrong.
Crow-Armstrong had a 13-game stint with the Cubs in 2023 to start his major-league career. He then had a lackluster rookie season.
However, this season, Crow-Armstrong has been one of the breakout stars in Major League Baseball as has turned his raw talent into production.
The 23-year-old is one of the main reasons why the Cubs lead the National League Central with a 28-19 record, including five wins in the last six games, after missing the postseason each of the last four years.
Crow-Armstrong is hitting .290/.325/.585 with 12 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 47 games. In a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox over the weekend, he went 8 for 14 with one double, two triples, one home run and eight RBIs.
Add in his eight defensive runs saved and Armstrong-Crow is playing like an NL MVP candidate. That is quite a step up from his rookie year when he had a .237/.286/.384 slash line in 123 games with 10 homers and 27 steals.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell says Crow-Armstrong does not have a magic formula for his improvement. It's basically experience and hard work.
'I think Pete's just a very talented young player that needed experience, he needed to play. he needed the struggle, he needed to go through it,' Counsell said. 'Now he has just kind of come through the challenge and some of the trial and error with some things hitting-wise and it's starting to bear fruit.
'I think the defense is a level up this year as well. He's just showing more consistency in his all-round game. You've got to make mistakes to learn. No one wants to see it, hear it or go through it, but making mistakes is still the best way to learn.'
Crow-Armstrong believes experience is the best teacher. He learned some tough lessons last season during his struggles but believes they are paying off in 2025.
'I think it's the natural evolution of my career,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'It's obviously no secret that the beginning of last year was hard, but at the end of the year before that was also hard. It was important for me to go through that.
'The whole time, though, it was always making the focus on going out and being ready to play for nine innings. I still find myself with the same focus but I'm having more success.'
Crow-Armstrong also came to spring training with more of a comfort level following a strong finish to last season, He had a .191 batting average on Aug. 1 but then hit .289/.342/.474 in his last 51 games.
'I definitely put the work in, and I went through a bunch of different attempts at finding the right routine and I think in the second half that I did,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'It felt rewarding to be able to help make an impact from an offensive standpoint and that's something that I felt like I was missing a lot of time last year, so it definitely gave me the confidence coming into this year, feeling like myself, the guy who I've always known I am.'
Sparkplug would be a good word to describe Crow-Armstrong, and he has been that for the Cubs this season. Counsell had been hitting Crow-Armstrong in the lower third of the order until moving him to the leadoff spot a little more than a week ago.
Crow-Armstrong has hit .394/.400/.818 in eight games since the switch.
'That word has always been thrown around,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'I just like playing baseball with a high-energy level and I guess that's the picture I fit. Wherever I'm hitting in the lineup, whatever position I'm playing, I've been blessed with speed and the ability to go make an impact on both sides of the baseball.
'So, it is definitely my duty to put that to use and I'm in a great setup to do so here with the Cubs," Pete Crow-Armstrong added. I just love where I'm at in my career and the people I'm around and it's all letting me go be myself, so it's cool.'
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