Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 40th base of the season on Thursday afternoon, a few weeks after belting his 40th career home run, which means the breakout star is now the seventh member of the 40-40 club in MLB history. He's all the way up to 45 home runs now to go with his 40 steals. Here's the historic 40th theft.
PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG HAS A 40/40 SEASON! pic.twitter.com/Ltc5YX110L Canseco, Acuña and Ohtani won league MVP in those same seasons, and it appears PCA is headed in that direction. As things stand, Crow-Armstrong is hitting .280/.374/.577 (157 OPS+) with 31 doubles, eight triples, 45 home runs, 107 RBI, 119 runs and 40 steals. He leads the majors in runs, home runs, total bases and WAR (9.8) while leading the NL in slugging, OPS and OPS+.
With the injury to Ohtani keeping him off the mound and later placing him on the IL, the path is clear for the first Cubs NL MVP since Kris Bryant took the honors in 2016. The hunch here is PCA wins the award unanimously. But PCA isn't just having an MVP-caliber season; he's putting together one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history.
He's the first Cubs player to ever reach the 40-40 plateau, but before he came around, there had only been two 30-30 seasons, both by Sammy Sosa. PCA has now done it twice in a row and he's still only 24 years old. Further, he's in rarified air in club history if we look at WAR, which takes hitting, baserunning and defense into account as a kind of "catch-all" stat (note: It is required by law here that I point out this isn't the only important stat and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool).
Among Cubs position players, here are the top 10 seasons by Baseball Reference's WAR (heading into Tuesday): 1. Rogers Hornsby, 1929, 10.6 WAR2. Ernie Banks, 1959, 10.2t4.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, 2026, 9.8t4. Ernie Banks, 1958, 9.3t7. Ryne Sandberg, 1984, 8.510.
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