Pete Crow-Armstrong’s recent slide has put a little noise around a season that’s already been loud, but the Cubs still have every reason to believe the bigger picture looks the same. The numbers over the last six games are rough - he’s hitting .154/.290/.346 with strikeouts piling up nearly 39% of the time - yet even in the middle of that funk, the traits that have defined his breakout are still showing through.
That matters. Over the last 31 plate appearances, Crow-Armstrong has not gone into chase mode or looked lost.
He’s taken five walks in that span, a 16.1% clip, and for the season he’s walking 12% of the time. That’s not the profile of a hitter getting swallowed up by the moment.
It’s the profile of someone who’s still finding ways to reach base even when the hits aren’t falling.
And the slump doesn’t erase what came before it. Before these six games, Crow-Armstrong was tearing through the post-All-Star break stretch at .282/.387/.641 with a 171 wRC+. That kind of run was always going to invite some regression, especially for a player whose season has already forced people to rethink how real the leap is.
The key difference now is how this downturn looks compared with the rough patches Crow-Armstrong went through late last season. This isn’t a case of a player getting overwhelmed.
He’s still extending at-bats. He’s still working walks.
The Cubs haven’t seen the kind of unraveling that would raise a real alarm.
There’s also some practical evidence that the team sees the need to manage him through this stretch. Over the past week, Crow-Armstrong has served as the Cubs’ designated hitter twice. That lines up with the decision to add Tyrone Taylor last week, giving Chicago another right-handed bat off the bench and a capable center field option that can buy Crow-Armstrong some time off his feet.
None of that changes the larger assignment in front of the Cubs. If they’re going to run down the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the National League Central, Crow-Armstrong has to stay at the center of it. The pitching staff got better after the trade deadline, but the real separator may still be whether Crow-Armstrong keeps playing like a superstar and delivering at an MVP level.
In Other News...
Cubs Face A Tough Pitching Decision As Two Arms Near Return
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Daniel Palencia, meanwhile, has not made the same clean case. His rehab work has been more uneven, with control issues and runs coming in those appearances, which leaves his timeline less certain as Chicago nears some overdue decisions. The Cubs will have to balance need, timing and health across a staff that is getting crowded again, and that makes the next move more than just a simple activation. [Read more 🡒]
Cade Horton Just Became A Bigger Cubs Concern Than Expected
The Cubs have already spent plenty of time thinking about the value of pitching depth, and Cade Hortons recovery is another reminder of how fragile that planning can be. Around the division, Hunter Greenes latest injury news has only sharpened the contrast between what teams hope for when a young arm goes down and what the calendar eventually delivers.
For Chicago, Horton remains a name to watch because his return is supposed to come next summer, but even that sort of target can shift quickly once a pitcher is in the rehab cycle. The bigger issue is not just whether he gets back, but what version of him the Cubs can count on when he does, which is exactly the kind of uncertainty that can reshape a rotation before the season even gets there. [Read more 🡒]