For months, it had been a matter of when, not if, Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong would be named the National League MVP.
That moment finally arrived Thursday when the 24-year-old’s incredible season was officially recognized as the first Cub to ever be unanimously chosen as the league’s MVP, earning all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
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“I’m just blessed to have the ability that I do,” Crow-Armstrong said Thursday after receiving the honor. “If I wasn’t playing at the level I played it this year, I think I could still kind of impact the same way, just maybe not as much. So absolutely, it brings me joy to be able to affect the game. … Baseball is baseball, and it’s a really treacherous journey throughout 162, and I’m definitely feeling lucky that I was able to impact as much as I did this year.”
For Cubs fans, the 2026 season will always be associated with Crow-Armstrong’s greatness, a performance that put him in the franchise’s history as the 11th Cub — ninth in the BBWAA era — to win an MVP, dating to 1911.
Over the course of six months, he provided plenty of highlights, most notably these 10 MVP-defining moments.
Crow-Armstrong has a knack for showmanship. With the organization honoring the franchise’s 150th anniversary and all-time team with their most notable living players at the ballpark on Aug. 29, the Cubs’ most prolific slugger had a pregame request: Sammy Sosa wanted to see three home runs out of Crow-Armstrong. Of course, PCA delivered against the Cincinnati Reds.
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Crow-Armstrong homered in the first, second and seventh innings, making him the youngest player in franchise history at 24 years, 157 days old to record a three-homer game.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ “Tarps Off” fan section in right field at Busch Stadium made Crow-Armstrong their target on May 30. As the Cubs held on to a two-run lead in the eighth, those fans greeted him with overrated chants during the at-bat.
On the second pitch, Crow-Armstrong sent a 444-foot two-run blast directly into the “Tarps Off” seats to silence the group’s taunting jeers, capping a four-hit night. It all played out in front of a national audience on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast, adding to the reach of the drama.
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In the midst of a rare mini slump, Crow-Armstrong came into the City Series at Wrigley with a .128 average and .277 on-base percentage in his previous nine games. He quickly put that behind him, sending White Sox starter Luis Castillo’s first pitch into the seats, then dramatically slugging the first walk-off homer of his career when he tagged lefty Hagen Smith for a two-run homer in the 10th inning.
Crow-Armstrong’s feat on Aug. 16 made him the first player to hit a leadoff home run on the first pitch his team saw and a walk-off homer on the last pitch of the game since the Kansas City Athletics’ Vic Power on May 7, 1957.
Crow-Armstrong’s incredible night in the City series opener against the White Sox went beyond his single-game heroics. His multi-homer game on Aug. 16 also gave Crow-Armstrong a 30-homer and 30-steal season. Despite it being just his third full big-league season, he has already established himself among the greatest multi-tool players in MLB history.
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The milestone represented the first time a Cubs player produced back-to-back 30-30 seasons, something only Sosa (2003 and 2005) had done more than once. And more broadly: Crow-Armstrong became the 10th player in MLB history to achieve the 30-30 feat in consecutive years.
Two days after falling a triple shy of the cycle in San Francisco, Crow-Armstrong didn’t let his shot at the rare feat come up short again June 15 versus the Colorado Rockies. The Cubs needed each of those hits in their walk-off win as Crow-Armstrong became the 12th Cubs player — and 13th overall — to hit for the cycle. Crow-Armstrong and Hack Wilson (June 23, 1930) are the only Cubs center fielders to accomplish the feat. PCA was also the first Cub in franchise history to hit a reverse cycle: home run, triple, double, single in order.
After the game, he lamented that his lapse in focus allowed the Rockies to immediately pick him off following a single to complete the cycle. But it ended well for the Cubs, who pulled out the win. Crow-Armstrong, at 24 years, 82 days, was the youngest Cub to do it since Randy Hundley (24 years, 71 days) in 1966.
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The combination of speed and power makes Crow-Armstrong a dynamic force not often seen in the franchise’s, or even MLB’s, history. Nine times this year he tallied a home run and stolen base in the same game, breaking Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg’s Cubs record that the second baseman set in 1991 when he recorded seven such games.
Only 10 players in big-league history have pulled that off more than Crow-Armstrong, a list that features Shohei Ohtani (16 times in 2024), Rickey Henderson (13 in 1986 and 11 in 1990), Bobby Bonds (12 in 1973), Barry Bonds (11 in 1992), Ronald Acuña Jr. (12 in 2023), César Cedeño (11 in 1973), Christian Yelich (11 in 2019), Joe Morgan (1975), José Canseco (1988), and Jeff Bagwell (1999), who each did it 10 times.
This sequence on Aug. 6 at Wrigley Field wouldn’t have been possible without third baseman Alex Bregman’s two-out, two-strike, two-run home run off Toronto closer Louis Varland to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. After neither team scored in the 10th and the Cubs bullpen put up a zero in the top of the 11th, Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff single got the action going.
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Carson Kelly, the extra runner at second to open the frame, got thrown out at home, but Crow-Armstrong was able to advance to second. Two batters later, Crow-Armstrong took off for third on Blue Jays lefty Brendon Little — a bold move with left-handed hitter Michael Busch at the plate that created a clear throwing lane for catcher Brandon Valenzuela. However, Valenzuela’s throw glanced off the third baseman’s mitt into left field, allowing Crow-Armstrong to scamper home and set off a wild scene.
As a two-time runner-up for NL MVP, Billy Williams, now 88, knows the kind of offensive production it takes to be among the best. So when Crow-Armstrong passed the Hall of Famer’s Cubs record for most home runs in a single season by a left-handed hitter — a record that stood for 56 years — it took something special, particularly while playing home games in a ballpark that is notoriously tough for lefties to go deep in.
A multi-homer game on Sept. 16 against the Atlanta Braves moved Crow-Armstrong to eclipse Williams’ mark. It also earned Crow-Armstrong a postgame call from the franchise icon, who congratulated him, saying he wished he had been at Wrigley so he too could have been chanting M-V-P with Cubs fans.
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Familiar faces sat behind the home dugout on Sept. 3 rocking Cubs gear and Crow-Armstrong jerseys. Bears star quarterback Caleb Williams and fellow young Chicago sports standouts Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis of the Bulls took advantage of mutual off nights, getting a front-row seat to see why Crow-Armstrong was cruising to his first MVP honor.
Crow-Armstrong teed off on Brewers starter Logan Henderson’s below-the-zone changeup for a two-run go-ahead homer, his 39th of the year, in the Cubs’ 2-1 victory. Coming into the game, hitters had managed just a .167 average and .367 slugging percentage off Henderson’s elite changeup.
Only six players in MLB history had produced a 40-homer, 40-steal season before Crow-Armstrong joined the club during the final home game of the season. Who could have envisioned that swiping enough bags would almost have been the near hindrance to the milestone for the speedster? Having reached the home run mark with 18 games left in the regular season, Crow-Armstrong needed seven more steals at that point.
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An anticipatory Wrigley crowd let out a roar when he reached first base following a leadoff walk in the first inning on Sept. 24 against the Miami Marlins, and he took second with ease, prompting an ovation and a helmet tip to the fans.
