Pete Crow-Armstrong may have plenty of reason to needle Dodgers fans, but when the Cubs All-Star was asked about Shohei Ohtani and the MVP race, he went in a direction almost nobody expected.
Crow-Armstrong has become one of the National League’s most intriguing names this season. At the All-Star break, the 24-year-old was sitting on a .917 OPS with 21 home runs, and his value only grows when you factor in his speed and elite defense.
Among position players, he owns the highest fWAR in baseball at 6.0. Bobby Witt Jr. is next at 4.8.
Ohtani, though, remains the standard. His 6.3 fWAR includes what he brings both as a hitter and a starting pitcher, which is why he is still on track for another MVP award if he stays healthy.
That backdrop made Crow-Armstrong’s answer stand out even more.
"I was telling a few of the guys earlier, 'Man, I would love to dethrone him,' but I don't know how you do it unless I go to a pitching lab in the off-season. I'll go be a closer or something and see how that helps my odds."
For a Cubs club that has already had to navigate injuries in its pitching staff this year, the line about joining the mound almost feels like it belongs in the conversation.
More than anything, though, it showed a side of Crow-Armstrong Dodgers fans haven’t really seen. He didn’t try to take a shot at Ohtani.
He didn’t overplay the moment. He gave credit where it was due, and in doing so, reminded everyone why Ohtani’s case is so hard to beat.
The Cubs outfielder may not be winning over the Los Angeles fan base anytime soon, but his MVP response was hard not to respect. And it was also a fresh reminder of just how rare Ohtani is: as long as he keeps performing as one of the National League’s best hitters and one of its best starting pitchers, the race starts and ends with him.
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