Pete Crow-Armstrong made his extension stance abundantly clear. If the Chicago Cubs give him a contract offer he deems to be fair, he won't hesitate when it comes to signing the dotted line. He wants to be in Chicago for as long as the Cubs want to pay him.
With that being said, Crow-Armstrong's willingness to extend does not mean he'll come cheap. In fact, after a Gold Glove-winning season that saw him hit 31 home runs and steal 35 bases, it'd take a lot to lock the 23-year-old up long-term. Even with that, the Cubs shouldn't hesitate when it comes to extending a player who could be a perennial All-Star. Doing that, though, could soon mark the end of these players' tenures in Chicago.
OF Seiya Suzuki
The Cubs are in an interesting spot with two of their three starting outfielders, Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki, hitting free agency after the year. While ideally both would be in Chicago for a while longer, re-signing both Happ and Suzuki while also paying Crow-Armstrong would be more costly than the Cubs would likely be comfortable with. If the Cubs can only re-sign one of them, Happ should be prioritized.
Sure, he's not quite the hitter Suzuki is, but Happ isn't much worse offensively, and he's won four straight Gold Gloves out in left field. He has also spent all nine of his big league seasons with the Cubs, and given his desire to stay long-term, he might be open to a team-friendly deal.
They're both 31 years old, but Happ is the more well-rounded player, making Suzuki the easier player to let walk on the open market.
2B Nico Hoerner
Perhaps letting Suzuki walk will save the Cubs enough money to where they'd be comfortable paying Crow-Armstrong and Hoerner, but after signing Alex Bregman to a big-money deal this winter, I'm not so sure. Tom Ricketts has never been one to approve massive spending.
Should the Cubs be letting Hoerner walk? Absolutely not. He doesn't have the power that Happ and Suzuki do, but he's elite at just about everything else. He's one of the three best second basemen in the sport overall, and is on the right side of 30. It's just hard to ignore the trade rumors.
I don't necessarily think the Cubs are going to trade him, but they might, knowing how possible it is that he'll demand more money than they'd be comfortable paying in the 2026 offseason and that they have Matt Shaw, a capable replacement, waiting in the wings, as well as prospects like James Triantos and Jefferson Rojas who aren't too far behind.
Again, this isn't what the Cubs should do. I can argue that Hoerner should be a bigger priority to extend than Crow-Armstrong, given his proximity to free agency. This is about predicting what will happen, and there's reason to believe that if the Cubs extend Crow-Armstrong, they'll look to cut long-term costs in other ways, and that could mean replacing Hoerner with Shaw at the keystone.
RHP Jameson Taillon
After a rough first season, Jameson Taillon has been the reliable mid-rotation arm the Cubs hoped he'd be when they signed him to a four-year, $68 million deal ahead of the 2023 campaign. He has a sub-4.00 ERA in his three years in Chicago thus far, while averaging 27 starts and 149.7 innings of work annually. That'll play.
As solid as he's been, is he really a player worth keeping around past the 2026 season? The right-hander turns 35 years old in November, his advanced numbers were not as good as his ERA indicates, and while he's been mostly healthy with Chicago, he's made 30 starts in a single season just twice in his nine-year career.
Additionally, the Cubs will have a bunch of rotation depth once Justin Steele gets healthy, with guys like Ben Brown and Jordan Wicks in Triple-A, and top prospect Jaxon Wiggins being just about big-league ready. Rather than paying Taillon, the Cubs can, and presumably will, stick to the depth they've built up.
OF Kevin Alcantara
Kevin Alcantara is one of the top prospects in the Cubs' system, mostly because of his high-end speed and outfield defense. Well, how much value can he provide the Cubs if Crow-Armstrong is going to be manning center field long-term? Is Alcantara a good enough hitter to justify playing regularly in a corner outfield spot?
The answer to that is probably not. While his .818 OPS in Triple-A was nothing to scoff at, Alcantara struck out nearly 30 percent of the time he stepped up to the plate and he's gone just 5-for-21 in his brief big league career. He obviously deserves more of an opportunity, but I doubt he'll ever be more than a fourth outfielder in Chicago.
With that being said, why not trade him in a deal that could help the Cubs elsewhere? Odds are, there's at least one team out there looking for a potential center fielder of the future. Alcantara's hit tool has its share of questions but he has power and is a terrific athlete, so there's a lot of untapped potential there, making him fairly valuable in possible trades. It's easier to move on from Alcantara if you know Crow-Armstrong will be in center field for the next decade.