Pete Crow-Armstrong’s rise has already put him in rare Cubs territory, and now it’s earned him a comparison that should land perfectly in Chicago.
Andrew McCutchen, the former Pirates star who spent years tormenting the Cubs, recently identified Crow-Armstrong as the modern-day version of himself when asked that question on MLB Network. McCutchen made clear it wasn’t a perfect one-for-one match, but PCA was his first answer. The fit isn’t hard to see: the bat on the shoulder, the flair for the moment, and the kind of presence that jumps off the screen.
The praise carries extra weight because Crow-Armstrong has backed it up with a season that borders on absurd. He’s weeks away from locking in a historic 40-40 season for Chicago and could pair that with an MVP Award.
His postseason was disappointing, but that’s only a small part of the bigger picture now. The regular season delivered everything Cubs fans could want: Baseball America’s Player of the Year honor, a place as a finalist for the Hank Aaron Award, and what should be both a Gold Glove and a Platinum Glove after he led the league with a 26 fielding run value and 25 outs above average.
At the plate, the jump was just as loud. Crow-Armstrong finished with a .280/.372/.570 slash line and a 157 wRC+, numbers that show just how far he surged from last season. Across the majors, only Yordan Alvarez posted better overall production.
McCutchen’s name isn’t being tossed around lightly, either. Even in a comparison that comes with clear limits - Crow-Armstrong has already done things McCutchen never did, including 40 homers and 40 steals - there’s real substance behind it. McCutchen appreciated the big-moment feel PCA brings, and even the stance image seems to line up.
The resemblance also makes sense when you look at McCutchen’s own run. He still played 39 games with the Rangers this year, but his days as one of the sport’s premier stars are in the rearview, and there’s uncertainty about 2027 now that he’s 40. Still, if Crow-Armstrong’s prime looks anything like McCutchen’s, Cubs fans would sign up immediately.
McCutchen broke in at a similar age, though he found success at the plate a little faster. Like Crow-Armstrong, he really took off in his third full, or close to full, season.
From 2011 through 2015, only Mike Trout piled up more WAR than McCutchen’s 34.2, and his .302/.396/.509 line with a 151 wRC+ ranked fifth in baseball over that stretch. That put him ahead of names like Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Braun.
His best offensive season came in 2014, when he put up a .314/.410/.542 line and a 169 wRC+. Defensively, the comparison gets shakier. McCutchen had his share of highlight plays and won a Gold Glove in 2012, but he was often in the negative in defensive runs saved over his career.
Even so, the broader point is obvious: McCutchen was one of the game’s best hitters through the 2010s, and he remained productive well beyond that five-year peak. Only once in his first 11 seasons did he finish with a wRC+ below 120.
If Crow-Armstrong comes anywhere close to that kind of sustained production, that’s a star career. If he pairs anything like McCutchen’s offensive peak with this level of defense over the next four years, the Cubs will have a perennial MVP candidate on their hands.
And with Seiya Suzuki likely to be gone as Chicago’s second-best hitter, that kind of anchor would matter even more. Crow-Armstrong has his own game, but getting that kind of endorsement from a former rival who knows star power when he sees it only adds to the buzz around what comes next.
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