Hopefully the kids who showed up to Wrigley Field with “MVPETE” painted on their chests earlier this summer know a good copyright lawyer.
The phrase might be of interest to the Cubs when end-of-season awards are handed out, with Pete Crow-Armstrong one of the best players in baseball as the season moves past its midway point.
The center fielder’s spectacular June ranks among the best statistical months the sport has ever seen.
Think that’s a little hyperbolic? OptaSTATS shared that Crow-Armstrong is one of three players ever to have a calendar month with at least a .375 batting average, a .775 slugging percentage, 80 total bases, 15 walks, 10 home runs and five steals.
The other two? Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Crow-Armstrong’s June: a .381 batting average, a .468 on-base percentage, a .781 slugging percentage, 11 homers, 20 RBIs, 21 runs scored, 17 walks and eight stolen bases in 26 games.
He turned the calendar to July leading baseball’s position players in both fWAR and bWAR and started the month with a bang, hitting a three-run homer in Wednesday’s win.
While Ruth and Gehrig are two of the best batsmen of all time, they could only dream of being the kind of all-around player Crow-Armstrong is, combining all that offensive excellence with speed and best-in-the-game defense in center field.
He doesn’t pitch like perennial NL MVP candidate Shohei Ohtani. But to talk about a possible showdown between Ohtani and “MVPETE” is no stretch.
“There’s not many players in our sport that can do everything on the field,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said Tuesday. “Maybe like Bobby Witt, Julio Rodriguez. I’m probably missing some guys. But just a true all-around game, five tools, every bit of the game.
“Obviously, the stretch of home runs, that was ridiculous, and there’s going to be times where that comes and goes, just like any great player. But he’s so valuable because he’s a star in our game without even doing that.”
Crow-Armstrong was correct in suggesting last month that he wouldn’t be able to lift the Cubs from their monthlong offense malaise all by himself, not as a “one-man wrecking crew.”
But by the time the team’s bats were officially back to life, it was Crow-Armstrong getting props for helping to reignite the spark.
“We needed this so badly to snap out of our funk. He kind of single-handedly dragged us there, and these other guys have followed along,” team president Jed Hoyer said last week in New York. “He’s been one of the best players in baseball, and it feels like he’s taken his game up a notch. I think there’s more notches to go.”
“That dude can carry a team when he goes,” starting pitcher Jameson Taillon said Tuesday. “It’s electric to watch.”
Much of the conversation around Crow-Armstrong this season has centered on what’s been different from his breakout 2025 campaign. His .374 on-base percentage this season is nearly .100 points higher than last year, and he’s walked 10 more times in 87 games this year than he did in 157 games last season.
But looking at numbers is easy. To truly see what makes Crow-Armstrong special, you have to watch him play defense.
“It’s like you almost want the plays at the edge of Pete’s range to happen, as much as you don’t like a ball hit in the gap against our pitchers,” manager Craig Counsell said Wednesday. “When that ball goes up, … first you’re at ‘no chance,’ then you’re at ‘maybe,’ and then you’re like, ‘Oh my god, he caught it.’”
“He’s the best center fielder in baseball. There’s no debate there,” righty pitcher Ben Brown said Wednesday. “He’s doing things I’ve never seen before, and I think everyone else can say the same thing.”
Crow-Armstrong is showing why the Cubs handed him a big-money contract extension before the season started, why he’s a cornerstone player for the franchise.
Is the sport’s biggest individual honor next? It’s certainly not out of the question.
Those “MVPETE” kids figure to get plenty of reasons to bust out the paintbrushes for their next trip to the bleachers.
