Pete Crow-Armstrong is the answer to the Cubs center field problem

Newfound Stardom

“I’ve been fortunate enough to play in front of some amazing center fielders…and he’s the top of it.”

Matthew Boyd praised his teammate in his April 23rd postgame press conference after Pete Crow-Armstrong drove in 4 runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Cubs know it. The league is noticing. Every baseball fan is wondering.

PCA has arrived, and he’s already very good. But how good can he be?

After a hot start to the season (2.5 fWAR - 5th in MLB), “PCA” chants in opposing stadiums, stars in his hair, national recognition, and a friendly relationship with the Wrigley Field bleacher bums, he’s on track for greatness.

The future face of the franchise is here.

Do center fielders really matter?

With PCA locked in as a core member of the Cubs through at least 2030, I started wondering about the significance of having a star in center field. Does that actually improve the Cubs’ chances of winning the World Series? Do center fielders catalyze winning baseball more effectively than other players?

Most would argue that catchers are the most important players on the field because they are involved on every single pitch. They call the game and see every 95 mph missile heading towards them. Catchers can elevate an entire pitching staff AND restrict any semblance of a baserunning threat from the other team.

Shortstops also get their share of the spotlight as the most essential defender in the infield. They need extreme range, a precise arm, and unmatched baseball IQ to make every play on the left side of the diamond. As one of the most athletic players on the field, they are asked to carry a heavy load. And once they get older, they can help the team at nearly any other position. Have you seen Javier Baez in center field this season??

So where did the love go for center fielders?

There was a time when everyone’s favorite player was a center fielder. When you ask someone who the greatest baseball player of all time is, you typically get a mix of Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, and a few others. I guess nowadays we even hear some Shohei Ohtani love as an elite two-way player.

But FAVORITE players, especially as a kid? Willie Mays. Ken Griffey Jr.. Mickey Mantle. Mike Trout. Andruw Jones. Elite players who excelled in every facet of the game. And since they have to roam the largest space on the field…some swag is required, too.

Even though center fielders impact the game less often than other positions, they FEEL like the quarterback of the defense. They cover the most ground, see the entire field, and can set the tone for the day on any given fly ball. In Chicago, it’s quite the coincidence that PCA made his MLB debut in September 2023, just 7 months before the Bears chose their prized franchise quarterback Caleb Williams. Both players have the equivalent of a full season under their belt and are ready to carry the city.

If CF = QB, does that mean you need a good one to win a championship?

Unequivocally, no.

Here are the last 10 World Series winners and their primary CF:

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of very good players on that list. But they’re also not on the tip of your tongue as a trivia contestant 10 years from now. Lorenzo Cain may be the only one who could be considered the best player on their respective team.

Plus, we’ve all seen how a historically good center fielder (ahem Anaheim) can consistently be stuck on bad teams. Mike Trout has 3 MVPs and 6 other MVP-like seasons, 85.8 career WAR, and only 12 playoff at-bats. This season, he moved over to right field to help prevent injury, and of course, he is injured again.

Aaron Judge switched to CF last season, had a ridiculous 58 HR/144 RBI MVP season, and automatically made the case to be the best CF in baseball. But he also moved out this year. The Yankees acquired Cody Bellinger from the Cubs, and Judge went back home to right field.

Now, in mid-May 2025, some of the names in the Top 10 for WAR at CF are: Andy Pages, Jung Hoo Lee, Victor Scott II, and Jake Meyers.

The top of the list? PCA.

The void at Wrigley Field

The Cubs have always been looking for an answer in center field.

Hack Wilson played…a long time ago. His 1930 MVP season with 59 HR, 191 RBI, 105 BB to 84 K, 1.177 OPS, and 7.4 WAR is by far the best season of any Cubs center fielder.

Who else had the best seasons in CF (by fWAR) in Cubs history?

Andy Pafko (1950), Jimmy Ryan (1888), Bill Lange (1895), Solly Hofman (1910), Adolfo Phillips (1967), and the list continues. With all due respect to the original greats of this game, I feel like I need to ask the question again. Who? MLB produced elite center fielders over and over again, and the Cubs were stuck in no man’s land.

Rick Monday posted an .800+ OPS in 4 of his 5 Cubs seasons in the 70s and blasted 32 homers in 1976.

As a 90s kid, I grew accustomed to the Sammy Sosa Show - with nothing next to him. A scattering of fill-ins in the 80s and 90s led to 2.5 formidable seasons from Brian McRae in the late 90s as the search for a sidekick for Sammy Sosa was futile.

The famous 1998 Cubs, riding the high of the Sosa/McGwire home run chase and the dramatic Game 163 win over the Giants, started well-known players like Lance Johnson, Brant Brown, Jose Hernandez, and Terrell Lowery in center field. During that 1998 season, the Cubs drafted a Georgia high schooler with the potential to lock down the ivy at Wrigley for the next decade: Corey Patterson.

In the midst of Patterson's climb through the minor leagues, the Cubs signed a 16-year old from the Dominican Republic in 2001: Felix Pie.

When those top prospects didn’t pan out, they moved towards free agents like Juan Pierre and Reed Johnson. They forced Jacque Jones and Kosuke Fukudome out of right field. Marlon Byrd was the big free agent acquisition in 2010 (for 3 years and $15M 😂). And then in the fall of 2011…Theo Epstein arrived in Chicago.

In Epstein’s first draft as commander in chief, he tried to solve the CF issue once and for all. Once Carlos Correa went off the board at #1 to the Houston Astros, he decided on a high school CF named Albert Almora Jr. at #6. As Almora began his minor league career, the Cubs made an under-the-radar trade before the 2015 season: acquiring Dexter Fowler from the Houston Astros for Dan Straily and Luis Valbuena.

You go, we go. The magic in center field at Wrigley briefly returned as Fowler had a solid 2015 season, almost left the team after rejecting the qualifying offer, surprised his teammates with his return during spring training, and then turned in the best season of his career as a World Series Champion in 2016. A .393 OBP and 4.0 WAR campaign was necessary to break the 108 year curse.

Fowler officially departed after the championship season, Almora never figured it out at the big league level, and just a few years later, the post-Epstein rebuild was underway.

Any Rafael Ortega fans out there? I mean, he did put up a .823 OPS in 2021!

Jed Hoyer’s flyer on Cody Bellinger before the 2023 season paid off BIG time. Despite remaining a tier below his 2019 MVP production levels, Bellinger delivered an impressive year and had Cubs fans believing he had turned his career around. Extend Belli! (so everyone said). A .307 AVG, 26 HR, and 97 RBI was a dream season for a Cubs team in desperate need for an ounce of offensive production.

Unfortunately, his resurgence was a fluke. He came back down to earth in 2024 as his results regressed to his underlying metrics.

As the 2024 Cubs pushed for a playoff spot, it wasn’t Belli manning center field. It was PCA.

PCA was the every day center fielder after his promotion on April 25, 2024. In his second, redemption, MLB “debut”, he battled against the legendary Justin Verlander and recorded his first MLB hit and HR off of Bryan Abreu in the 6th inning.

Pete Crow-Armstrong’s Humble Confidence

"Ready for that ball every play...it made me feel like Tauch."

Pete Crow-Armstrong shrugged off his walk-off home run robbery at Dodger Stadium in his post game interview with Taylor McGregor. A childhood dream came true on September 10, 2024, but it was just another play for a 22-year old who grew up watching his favorite players roam center field in that exact spot.

"Everybody picked each other up."

364 days before his LA heroics, PCA name dropped four teammates' contributions when asked about his major league debut in Colorado on September 11, 2023. His maturity, professionalism, and humility have been on display since the 2021 trade deadline deal that landed him in the Cubs organization.

Throughout the 2024 season, Craig Counsell challenged PCA to focus on his daily routine. Control his process, gain confidence in himself, and be a player Counsell can trust on the next play. There were many bumps in the road. He had a .395 OPS in June and really struggled at the plate until August. He hit out of the 9-hole for most of the season. He sailed a few throws to home plate like Mitch Trubisky throwing to Allen Robinson on a curl route. His decision making was questionable at times. He got into trouble on the basepaths.

Here we stand, 180 games and 555 at-bats into PCA's major league career, and I will confidently say the Cubs found their answer in center field.

You always hear about 5-tool players in baseball. PCA has 8.

Contact/Power/Fielding/Speed/Arm/Swag/Heart/Hustle

With just over 1 full season of major league baseball in the rearview mirror, I’m not sure any other player has been doubted or undersold as much as PCA. There has been a consensus that his fielding abilities and speed will carry him through a long career, but most doubted his bat.

I agree that his plate discipline needs work. His O-Swing% is 44.6% (Kyle Tucker’s is 19.8% for reference). He swings the bat a LOT, and he doesn’t draw many walks (9 so far this season). Sometimes he’s the most locked in hitter in the game, and other times he looks lost.

I am certain, however, that his development is obvious. Nobody can deny he has improved in an extremely short time frame, and he has the demeanor and athleticism to push through more hurdles.

“As long as his offense is average, he’ll be a really good player for the Cubs.”

This is a true statement, but I’m tired of hearing it.

His 133 wRC+ is 2nd among all center fielders. He’s on pace for 40 HRs and 47 SBs (!!!). He has a 14.0% barrel rate (82nd percentile), his Z-Contact% has skyrocketed to 84.1%, and he can still run around the bases in 14.08 seconds.

A .883 OPS in his minor league career wasn’t enough to convince people. Maybe a 9.2 fWAR pace for the 2025 season will be enough. The last 9.0 fWAR season for a Chicago Cub? Sammy Sosa in 2001.

This is a perennial Gold Glover with elite speed. But he’s also an elite hitter as a 2nd year, 23-year old player who sprinted through the minor league system. There is no ceiling, and if there was, PCA would shatter it. 8 players in the history of the Chicago Cubs have accumulated 50 fWAR. With this trajectory, PCA will be an all-time great on the North Side.

He knows he can do it all. And he’s not afraid of the next diving play or next opportunity to work a long at-bat against the opposing closer. He’s confident in a scary-but-believable kind of way. The kid from Sherman Oaks, CA is now Chicago’s own, and he’s ready for the big stage.

There’s just something different about your favorite team having a safety net in center field. And in front of the beautiful green ivy and dangerous brick wall at Wrigley Field, an electric center fielder brings the city to life.