{"id":473483,"date":"2026-02-14T01:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/473483\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:20:07","slug":"chicago-cubs-pete-crow-armstrong-aims-for-consistency-improvement-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/473483\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong aims for consistency, improvement in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

MESA, Ariz. — After an All-Star season that nearly fell off the cliff in the second half last year, Chicago Cubs<\/a> star Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> is hoping for both improvement and more consistency as he enters 2026 with high expectations: He\u2019ll man center field for a playoff contender this summer after doing the same for Team USA in the WBC this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what I do well. I know what I don\u2019t do well,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said this week from Cubs camp. \u201cI know that I chase, I know that I can get away with hitting bad balls and doing damage on bad balls, but the consistency — there is no consistency there really. It\u2019s very sporadic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong started the All-Star Game last July after hitting 25 first-half home runs and stealing 27 bases. But everything took a dip in the second half when he got on base at just a 26% clip, hitting just six home runs. His setup in the batter\u2019s box was off and he chased too many bad pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw last year was that the swing, it will work and it\u2019ll play,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cWhat we also noticed was that when the setup was out of whack and I wasn\u2019t really getting in the box the same way and everything, that\u2019s when the swing kind of went to crap and that\u2019s when the mechanical stuff started playing a bigger role in the lack of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong\u2019s chase rate was 41.7% last season, and though he did damage on a lot of bad pitches early on, he said he understands that kind of mentality and approach will catch up with a hitter. It eventually did, dropping his first half batting average from .265 to .216.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m never practicing hitting those bad balls,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cIf I do it, I do it. And again, more often than not, if I\u2019m swinging at some s– in my shins, it\u2019s not usually back spun in the air. There will be times during the game when that does happen, but I saw that maybe twice, three times last year. I would love to just be on base more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swing? We\u2019ve kind of ironed that out. It\u2019s not the most perfect thing in the world, but the steps we\u2019ve taken with the swing over the last three years has been incredible and I\u2019m very proud of that. What I\u2019m not so proud is the .280 on-base percentage and the 55% swing rate or whatever it was. That\u2019s no fun. I had a lot more fun when I was playing well and when I was playing while I was keeping the ball in the middle of the plate and I was able to do damage there.\u201d<\/p>\n

PCA, as he\u2019s known around the Cubs, will have plenty of help. Last year, veteran Justin Turner<\/a> took him under his wing. Perhaps this season, it\u2019ll be newcomer Alex Bregman<\/a>. The relationship is already taking form in just a few days together in spring training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the sky is the limit for him,\u201d Bregman said on Friday. \u201cHe can do anything on a baseball field. We\u2019ve talked mostly about swing decisions and how dominant he is when he swings at good pitches to hit …The more that he refines his game, he\u2019s going to continue to get better and better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong added: \u201cWe\u2019ve just had a lot of cool conversations about approach and how we want to see me attack and get that OBP back up, that swing rate\/chase rate down. I\u2019m confident that he is somebody that will really help me with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Cubs manager Craig Counsell isn\u2019t looking at the back of PCA\u2019s baseball card to assess his season. He knows his skill set can help the team in so many ways. Instead, he has that one simple goal for him. Improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get to that good place you never thing its going to go away,\u201d Counsell said with a smile. \u201cThat\u2019s the devil of hitting. He\u2019s a young hitter learning a lot … The goal for Pete is to keep improving. Let\u2019s not stress out about the shape of the season. Let\u2019s just keep improving. That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bregman and Crow-Armstrong will leave camp together at the end of the month to join Team USA as they prep for the WBC, which is in early March. A young player leaving his team could set him back in terms of instruction from coaches, but the value of being around so many great players on the world stage can\u2019t be denied. Crow-Armstrong had difficulty containing his excitement for the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be really good,\u201d Crow-Armstrong stated. \u201cWe got the two reigning Cy Youngs … I\u2019m so fricking stoked. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m supposed to do, I feel like everybody\u2019s going to do the work for me. I just have to go play defense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MESA, Ariz. — After an All-Star season that nearly fell off the cliff in the second half last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,100494,462,192470,82],"class_list":["post-473483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-cubs-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-240","tag-mlb","tag-pete-crow-armstrong-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-1216739","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}