In just a few weeks, Pete Crow-Armstrong is expected to join Ernie Banks in a select group: Chicago Cubs players who have won National League Most Valuable Player honors.
Yet PCA has already one-upped Mr. Cub in one category.
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Crow-Armstrong became the youngest player in franchise history to hit 40 home runs, reaching the honor on Sunday, Sept. 6 with a low line drive just inside the right field foul pole at loanDepot Park, a game-tying fifth-inning shot off Miami Marlins right-hander Tyler Phillips.
While the Cubs would go on to lose the game 10-3, there’s little to stop the Summer of PCA.
He’s now second in the major leagues with 40 homers, trailing only Philadelphia DH Kyle Schwarber’s 42, and his 8.6 WAR leads all position players. At 24 years, 165 days old, Crow-Armstrong is 49 days younger than Banks was when the Hall of Famer hit his 40th home run in 1955, the first of his eight consecutive All-Star seasons.
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Banks would win NL MVP honors in 1958 – hitting a career-best and major league-high 47 homers – and 1959. He’s one of 11 Cubs players to win the award.
Crow-Armstrong, with his .946 OPS, 33 stolen bases and defensive metrics that lap his rival center fielders, is expected to supplant the currently idled Shohei Ohtani, who won the past two NL MVPs.
Pete Crow-Armstrong throws up four fingers after hitting his 40th home run Sunday, Sept. 6 against the Marlins in Miami.
For now, though, Crow-Armstrong has banked 40 homers for a club firmly entrenched in an NL playoff position.
“Forty homers, it’s a hard number to get to,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters in Miami. “And the season’s not over.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong hits 40th home run to boost NL MVP case
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