Pete Crow-Armstrong keeps stacking milestones, and Thursday afternoon gave him another one for the shelf.
The Cubs center fielder swiped his 40th base of the season a few weeks after reaching 40 career home runs, making him the seventh player in MLB history to join the 40-40 club. He’s up to 45 home runs and 40 steals now, a combination that has turned his breakout into one of the loudest seasons in the sport.
That kind of power-speed mix has usually belonged to MVPs. Jose Canseco won the award in 1988, Ronald Acuña Jr. did it in 2023, and Shohei Ohtani followed in 2024.
Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano also made the club in seasons that still stand out on the all-time list. With Ohtani sidelined by injury and later placed on the IL, the lane looks open for Crow-Armstrong to become the Cubs’ first National League MVP since Kris Bryant in 2016.
The numbers back up the buzz. Crow-Armstrong is hitting .280/.374/.577 with a 157 OPS+, along with 31 doubles, eight triples, 45 homers, 107 RBI, 119 runs and 40 steals. He leads the majors in runs, home runs, total bases and WAR at 9.8, while also sitting atop the NL in slugging, OPS and OPS+.
He’s not just putting together an MVP-type year. He’s authoring one of the best individual seasons the Cubs have ever had.
Crow-Armstrong is the first player in franchise history to reach 40-40. Before him, the Cubs had only seen two 30-30 seasons, both from Sammy Sosa. Now Crow-Armstrong has done it twice in a row, and he’s still just 24 years old.
He also lands among the franchise’s elite when WAR enters the picture, a stat that folds in hitting, baserunning and defense. By Baseball Reference’s numbers heading into Tuesday, Crow-Armstrong’s 9.8 WAR ties Ron Santo’s 1967 season for fourth among Cubs position players. Only Rogers Hornsby’s 1929 season, Sammy Sosa’s 2001 season and Ernie Banks’ 1959 season rank higher.
FanGraphs likes it even more. On that list, Crow-Armstrong’s 10.6 WAR is second in Cubs history, behind only Hornsby’s 1929 mark of 11.0 and ahead of Sosa’s 2001 season.
The broader point is hard to miss: this isn’t just a big bat doing damage. Crow-Armstrong has been elite across the board. He’s one of the best hitters in the game, one of the most dangerous runners, and he grades out as a defensive force too, leading in fielding run value and outs above average.
Put all of that together and you get a season that sits near the top of the Cubs record book.
And he’s still only 24.
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