Pete Crow-Armstrong is stacking up a season that keeps getting louder, and the glove just pushed him into rare territory.
The Cubs center fielder made another highlight-reel play Monday against the Detroit Tigers, diving to steal a hit from former Cub Zach McKinstry. It was the kind of play Crow-Armstrong has built his reputation on, but this one carried extra weight: it moved him to 33 career 5-star catches, the most by any outfielder since Statcast started tracking the category in 2016.
A 5-star catch is defined as a play with a catch probability between 0-25 percent, and Crow-Armstrong has now separated himself from the rest of the field. He broke a tie with former Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier, who finished with 32 in nine seasons.
Crow-Armstrong got there at age 24, in just under two-and-a-half seasons, and he did it in only 62 opportunities. No one else in the top ten has fewer than 100 chances.
That kind of pace is why Crow-Armstrong is looking more and more like the next great Cubs star in center. He already won a Gold Glove in his first full major league season, and he appears to be on track for a second straight one, with plenty more likely to follow if this keeps up.
The defensive leap is only part of the story, though. Crow-Armstrong is also making real progress at the plate, and the biggest change has come in his approach.
His walk rate has jumped from 4.5% to 11.8% in 2026, a rise of 7.3 percentage points. That’s the largest increase by any player with a sub-5% walk rate since Al Kaline in 1954-55, when both seasons were qualified.
That growth matters because Crow-Armstrong is now in the thick of the National League MVP conversation. With Shohei Ohtani shut down from pitching, Crow-Armstrong has a real opening, and his numbers are backing it up. Through 101 games in 2026, he has already topped his 2025 fWAR and sits at 6.3 fWAR, which leads all MLB position players.
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