Before the 2025 season began, the Cubs reportedly approached Pete Crow-Armstrong with a contract extension offer:
It’s unclear how many years and option years would have been included in such a contract, but nothing was done beyond that. And all of that happened either early in the 2025 season or perhaps before it even began.
Now, PCA has produced a season in which he performed at near-MVP level for the first half, then declined significantly in the second half. Nevertheless, his numbers were still solid, if not spectacular: .247/.287/.481 in 157 games, with 37 doubles, four triples, 31 home runs and 35 stolen bases. That, along with his incredibly good defense, produced 6.0 bWAR, which was sixth-best in the National League. PCA is the likely Gold Glove winner in center field and a strong candidate for the Platinum Glove, given to the best overall fielder in MLB.
While he still needs to work on facets of his offensive game, putting up a year like that at age 23 hints at several more years like that to come.
So what would you offer PCA? He isn’t arb-eligible for one more year (under the current structure), and is under team control for five more seasons, through 2030. Thus, perhaps a six-year contract, buying out all his arb years and one year of free agency, might be worth pursuing. At the end of the 2031 season he’ll still be just 29 years old and if he’s still producing like this, could land a fairly large free-agent deal at that point.
It should be noted that PCA is exceptionally popular with the fanbase. While that’s hard to quantify, keeping a player like that around does have some financial value to the team (jersey sales, other promotions, etc.).
Six years, $140 million. Would that get it done?
