We’ve reached the point where the question is no longer whether Chicago Cubs superstar outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong will win his first NL MVP. Instead, we’re left to ask what color tie he’ll wear to the award ceremony.
Crow-Armstrong entered Tuesday hitting .281 with 41 home runs, 97 RBI, 35 stolen bases and a league-leading .953 OPS. He's recorded an MLB-best 9.0 bWAR and 108 runs for the Cubs, who currently hold the NL's top Wild Card seed.
With less than three weeks left, here’s where Crow-Armstrong ranks among the greatest seasons in Cubs history.
How Pete-Crow Armstrong’s 2026 season compares to other Chicago Cubs greats
Wins Above Replacement
Baseball-Reference values Crow-Armstrong’s bWAR at 9.0, which is already the sixth-best single-season output in franchise history. As for those above him?Â
Player | bWAR |
|---|---|
Rogers Hornsby, 1929 | 10.6 |
Sammy Sosa, 2001 | 10.3 |
Ernie Banks, 1959 | 10.2 |
Ron Santo, 1967 | 9.8 |
Ernie Banks, 1959 | 9.3 |
Even if you put an asterisk on Sosa’s Cubs career given his alleged performance-enhancing drug use, that doesn’t change his numbers. Hornsby, Banks and Santo are all in the Hall of Fame, and Crow-Armstrong looks to eventually join them.
For the record: FanGraphs uses its own Wins Above Replacement system, and that service values Crow-Armstrong’s fWAR at 9.9.
40-40 club
With five more stolen bases, Crow-Armstrong will become the first player in franchise history — and just the seventh ever — to join the 40-40 club. We’re sure you’re familiar with the following players:
Year | Player | Home runs | Stolen bases |
|---|---|---|---|
1988 | José Canseco, RF, Oakland Athletics | 42 | 40 |
1996 | Barry Bonds, LF, San Francisco Giants | 42 | 40 |
1998 | Alex Rodriguez, SS, Seattle Mariners | 42 | 46 |
2006 | Alfonso Soriano, LF, Washington Nationals | 46 | 41 |
2023 | Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Atlanta Braves | 41 | 73 |
2024 | Shohei Ohtani, DH, Los Angeles Dodgers | 59 | 59 |
Canseco, Acuña Jr. and Ohtani all won MVP honors during their 40-40 seasons, and Ohtani is the only one to win the World Series that same year. Will Crow-Armstrong join the Dodgers superstar in that exclusive group?
Home runs
Crow-Armstrong's 41 home runs currently tie him with Hank Sauer (1954) and Ernie Banks (1960) for No. 15 on the Cubs' single-season list. He needs six more to pass Derrek Lee, who hit 46 in 2005, for 10th all-time.
Here’s a fun trivia question: There have been five 50-home run seasons in Cubs history, and Sosa is responsible for four of them. The other man isn’t Ernie Banks or Billy Williams, and it’s not even Andre Dawson.
Give up? Hack Wilson hit 56 in 1930, the same season he recorded an MLB-record 191 RBI and won MVP honors.
Stolen bases
Crow-Armstrong is five steals away from recording the 48th instance of a 40-stolen base season in Cubs history. He'd need 50 just to crack the top 20, and that’d only tie him with Jimmy Ryan, who had 50 in 1887. That was when the Cubs were known as the White Stockings. Seriously.
Major League Baseball games in 1887 must have been fascinating. New York sports radio legend Mike Francesa once received a call from someone who read a book about the 1908 MLB season, which fittingly ended with the Cubs’ second straight World Series title.Â
Where’s our informative call about the 1887 season?
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