Pete Crow-Armstrong Just Pulled Ahead in MVP Race
There’s still a month left in the season, but Saturday just brought two major developments in a National League MVP race that was probably not as close as Dodgers fans wanted it to be. The most obvious of those developments was Pete Crow-Armstrong going 4-for-6 with three home runs and six RBI. Doing it in front of Sammy Sosa and other members of the Cubs’ 150th Anniversary Team made it the accomplishment even more special.
“Sammy did say I was gonna hit three today,” PCA told Marquee’s Taylor McGregor after the game. “Sammy Sosa told me I was gonna hit three, and I hit three. Put that on the record.”
While that was unfolding in Chicago, Dave Roberts was announcing to reporters in Detroit that Shohei Ohtani will not pitch on Sunday after feeling discomfort in his knee. He hasn’t pitched since July 3 and returning to the mound at all this season is in jeopardy. He was only slated to pitch one inning as the opener for Tyler Glasnow, so holding him out of even that abbreviated outing is telling.
“His value offensively is hugely important, and so we can’t compromise that in any fashion,” Roberts said. “If throwing potentially cuts into that, that’s not worth the squeeze.”
Ohtani has also battled a biceps issue that may be slowing him down at the plate, as evidenced by a .129/.289/.226 line with no homers in the last eight games. Then there’s the matter of his DH role negating any possible defensive value.
Meanwhile, PCA leapt to somewhere in the neighborhood of 9.0 fWAR to move into fourth place all time on the Cubs’ single-season list. That will put him nearly three wins ahead of the next closest player in MLB pending the rest of Saturday’s games. Ohtani is at 7.0 between his hitting and pitching, and those two wins represent a massive gulf when looking at an MVP race.
Another one finds its way home. pic.twitter.com/VLBrZoPb9W
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 29, 2026
While voters don’t look at one metric, it’s become obvious that BBWAA members have grown far more knowledgeable about how value is actually measured. To that end, WAR is an excellent indicator of how the ballots will be cast. Even if we’re talking about more old-school points like vibes and signature moments, PCA hitting eight leadoff homers and taking the league by storm should garner him some votes.
“I think Pete’s having a wonderful season,” Craig Counsell said after the game. “It’s a lot of fun to watch… Pete’s done a couple things this year that haven’t been done in a long time.”
At this point, no reasonable person could possibly vote for anyone other than Crow-Armstrong for MVP.
