Pete Crow-Armstrong’s first-inning steal of second base Thursday against Miami at Wrigley Field gave the Cubs center fielder one more landmark in a season already crowded with them: 40 home runs and 40 steals.
The swipe made Crow-Armstrong the first Cubs player ever to reach the 40-40 threshold and just the seventh player in Major League history to do it in one season. With 45 homers at the moment, he has paired rare power with the kind of game-changing speed that has kept Wrigley Field loud from the opening pitch onward.
“What Pete has done this season has been extraordinary,” manager Craig Counsell said. “The milestone matters, but it feels like he has given us something remarkable all year. The fans have embraced it in a way I have not experienced before.”
A seven-man 40-40 group
Crow-Armstrong joined a short list that includes Shohei Ohtani, who posted 54 home runs and 59 steals in 2024; Ronald Acuña Jr., with 41 homers and 73 steals in 2023; and Alfonso Soriano, who had 46 homers and 41 steals in 2006.
The earlier members are Alex Rodriguez, who went 42-46 in 1998, Barry Bonds, who finished 42-40 in 1996, and Jose Canseco, who recorded 42 homers and 40 steals in 1988.
“That is pretty special,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “Very few players have the talent even to put themselves in position for it. Being the seventh ever, with those names on the list, is a terrific accomplishment.”
Rewriting the Cubs record book
The 40-40 season is only part of Crow-Armstrong’s climb through the club’s offensive history. He had already become the first Cub with at least 40 homers and 30 steals in a season.
He is now the second player in franchise history with a 30-homer, 30-steal campaign, following Sammy Sosa, who did it in 1993 and 1995. Crow-Armstrong also reached 30-30 last season, and in each of the past two years he has added at least 30 doubles—a combination no other Cubs player has matched.
His 45 home runs place him among the Cubs hitters to reach that total in a season: Sosa, who did it five times; Ernie Banks, twice; plus Hack Wilson, Andre Dawson, Dave Kingman, Derrek Lee and Crow-Armstrong. Lee was the most recent Cub to get there, hitting 46 in 2005.
Crow-Armstrong has also passed Billy Williams for the most home runs by a left-handed hitter in a Cubs season. Williams hit 42 in 1970.
Hoyer called it the finest position-player season he has seen during his baseball career, saying Crow-Armstrong is headed for the National League MVP, Hank Aaron Award and Platinum Glove recognition. In Hoyer’s view, that all-around sweep stands above the usual discussions of a Triple Crown.
From P-C-A to MVP
The crowd connection has been building since Crow-Armstrong’s 2023 major league debut at Coors Field in Denver, when fans first broke out the familiar “P-C-A” chant. It followed him to visiting ballparks, grew louder as his profile rose and reached Japan’s Tokyo Dome during last year’s opening series.
At Wrigley, the chant arrives during at-bats, after stolen bases and following the rangy plays that have made center field his stage. This summer, the sound has increasingly shifted to “M-V-P.”
Counsell said he has rarely seen a player’s name chanted so regularly since arriving in the majors, and he credited Crow-Armstrong for continuing to perform amid that attention.
For the manager, the numbers and the noise have made for the sort of season that stays with a clubhouse long after the final standings are set.
“You get to enjoy it as part of the group,” Counsell said. “Those are the moments you remember from this job, and he has created plenty of them for all of us.”
