With a pair of residence runs on Saturday, Pete Crow-Armstrong is wanting just like the offensive weapon the Chicago Cubs want in 2025.
Certain, it is spring coaching, so the statistics do not actually matter. Nevertheless, what has been a really robust spring from the 22-year-old Crow-Armstrong with an inspiring end to the 2024 marketing campaign, and it is simple to see why Cubs followers are hoping the participant often known as “PCA” is able to be an offensive weapon at Wrigley Subject this season.
On Saturday in opposition to the Seattle Mariners, Crow-Armstrong regarded in regular-season kind early on, taking an 0-1 pitch from Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert deep over the best subject fence to get the Cubs on the board.
One inning later, Crow-Armstrong was again on the plate, this time with the bases loaded. Whereas he might have been dealing with a distinct Seattle pitcher (this time, Eduard Bazardo), the end result was the identical as PCA went reverse subject this time for a grand slam.
Crow-Armstrong struck out within the backside of the fifth, placing the ending touches on a 2-for-3 day that boosted his spring coaching batting common to .522 with an OPS of 1.587 thanks to 3 residence runs in 23 spring at-bats.
With the Cubs scheduled to open the season in Tokyo in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 18, all indicators are pointing towards Crow-Armstrong taking a giant statistical leap in 2025. Final season, in his first intensive time with the Cubs (410 plate appearances over 123 video games), Crow-Armstrong slashed .237/.286/.384 with 10 homers and 47 RBI.
These numbers are definitely acceptable, however a deeper dive into them reveals a really optimistic pattern. Over the ultimate 215 plate appearances (stretched over 57 video games), Crow-Armstrong posted a .289 batting common with an .806 OPS (his total OPS on the season was .670). In response to FanGraphs, he logged 2.2 fWAR from July 27 by way of the top of the season. That was the Nineteenth-highest mark of all Main League Baseball hitters throughout that point.
For Crow-Armstrong, nonetheless, it is not nearly what he can do on the plate. He can also create chaos on the bases.
Final season, PCA went 27-of-30 on stolen base makes an attempt, showcasing his pace which has been measured at 30 toes per second per Baseball Savant. That places him within the 99th percentile of all MLB gamers.
Testing his defensive numbers on Baseball Savant makes one notice that Crow-Armstrong is as a lot of a weapon within the subject as he’s on the bases. His 14 Outs Above Common final season tied for sixth amongst all MLB outfielders whereas his arm power of 93 mph ranked seventeenth amongst his friends.
Whereas it could be spring, with the common season starting in a little bit greater than every week, Crow-Armstrong is on a path towards turning into one of many new faces of the Cubs, in 2025 and past.
