Cubs Should Probably Stop Wasting PCA’s Heroics

Pete Crow-Armstrong has homered eight times across five of the Cubs’ last 10 games, yet his team is 2-3 when he homers and 5-5 overall. That doesn’t mean he’s any less valuable than his season statistics clearly indicate, but it’s a reminder that one player can’t do it all. The center fielder’s assault on his franchise’s record books has led the Cubs to an MLB-high 203 home runs, which would be really incredible if the pitching staff hadn’t given up an MLB-high 217 home runs.

At least we can rest assured that the Cubs won’t come anywhere near the 305 dingers surrendered by the 2019 Orioles. Yeesh.

Some of this is just bad luck, and that is magnified by the small sample I chose, but every game takes on added weight when there are only 17 left to play. As such, I think it’s fair to look at 10-game stretches when the Cubs have lost two games to the Phillies and one to the Diamondbacks over that period. A postseason berth isn’t in jeopardy unless they lose at least four more games to Arizona in the next three weeks, so the concern is more about what happens when the margins for error grow even slimmer.

Monday’s loss was a great example of that, and it may have come down to Craig Counsell having either too much faith in Matthew Boyd or too little in his bullpen. Let’s be clear that I’m not putting the outcome on the manager. I am, however, stating for the quadrillionth time that this pitching staff is far too suspect to inspire hope of a deep postseason run.

Could they all start clicking at the same time to better support the game’s most explosive offense? Sure, that’s possible. The more likely outcome, however, is that Counsell will pull the wrong name out of the hat at a point when there’s no tomorrow waiting. Rather than belabor this tired-ass point any longer, let’s get back to PCA and what he’s doing this season.

To be fair, that’s almost become just as tired because we keep talking about each new exploit. Like how he’s the first Cub ever with 40+ home runs and 30+ steals in a season. Or how he’s just the second Cub after Ryne Sandberg in 1991 to have at least one homer and one stolen base in seven games. PCA’s 9.9 fWAR ties him with Sammy Sosa for second in club history for a single season, and his 9.0 bWAR is fifth among all players who’ve worn a Cubs uniform.

If he maintains this pace, he’ll finish with 11.0 fWAR and 10.0 bWAR to move into first (tie) and third all-time in franchise history. Only 27 individual seasons since 1871 have had that much fWAR, and 60 have had that bWAR total. But what’s really wild is that PCA didn’t hit his second home run until April 28, which was 124 plate appearances into the season. He was slashing .241/.305/.315 with a 75 wRC+, so his pace is actually much better if we go from that date.

It’s not impossible for PCA to add another 1.3 or even 1.4 fWAR to set a new club record and move into a tie with Jimmie Foxx (1932) for 18th all-time. That would also mean surpassing Aaron Judge‘s 2022 (11.1) and ’24 (11.2) seasons, both of which were MVP campaigns. Unless enough voters decide to completely abandon all logic, PCA should be the unanimous choice in the National League. As if that hadn’t already been obvious, he has four more homers (10) since August 18 than Shohei Ohtani has hits (6).

PCA has also pitched as many innings as Ohtani since July 3, but maybe Craig Counsell should consider putting him on the mound just to boost his odds a bit. Based on the way things have been going, it might not be the worst idea. And besides, Crow-Armstrong was a better pitcher than Paul Skenes when they were on Team USA…12 years ago.

I’m not willing to believe PCA’s MVP campaign can have the same result as Kris Bryant‘s 10 years ago, but ending it like Sosa’s in 1998 or Sandberg’s in ’84 would be supremely disappointing.