Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong needed just 41 games this season to hit his 10th home run. It’s been one of the least expected — and most welcome — storylines of the season in Chicago, where the 25-19 Cubs have raced out to first place in the National League Central division.
10/10 NO NOTES, PCA! pic.twitter.com/xrl4RVNr03
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 3, 2025
Last year, Crow-Armstrong did not reach 10 home runs until his 110th game of the season. He did not hit homer again over the season’s final two weeks, and finished his rookie year with a .384 slugging percentage.
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That’s mostly in line with the industry expectations for Crow-Armstrong, who was taken 19th overall in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft by the New York Mets. Now, however, it’s looking like the industry underestimated Crow-Armstrong’s potential as a five-tool center fielder.
The Mets’ general manager who drafted Crow-Armstrong was Brodie Van Wagenen, who was fired in November 2020 when Steve Cohen completed his purchase of the team. Jared Porter was hired to replace Van Wagenen.
A year later, Crow-Armstrong was traded to the Chicago Cubs in the blockbuster exchange that sent All-Star Javy Baez to New York. Zack Scott, hired on an interim basis after Porter was fired in January 2021, executed the trade.
Hopefully, this is the last time I speak on this topic. No one at either the Red Sox or Mets saw PCA’s power coming. We were wrong. Onward… https://t.co/CimXetdfIP
— Zack Scott (@ZackScottSports) May 15, 2025
“I think people forget we were in first place at the time,” Scott said in an appearance this week on SNY. “We wanted to add some impact to the lineup.”
The Mets got 47 games out of Baez, who posted a 140 OPS+, stole five bases, and provided excellent defense up the middle. But the team failed to qualify for the postseason, and Baez signed with the Tigers in free agency.
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Hindsight is 20-20, but including Crow-Armstrong in the trade now looks like a mistake on the Mets’ part.
“The big thing was (Crow-Armstrong’s) bat,” Scott told the SNY panel. “Loved the defense, the makeup, the speed, had no doubt that that would be there. But did not see this level of power.”
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Scott seems resigned to the fact that he — and other industry evaluators — underestimated Crow-Armstrong’s power potential. Scott was an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox at the time of the 2020 MLB Draft and his team missed it then, too.
Boston opted to draft Nick Yorke with the 17th pick in 2020, while Crow-Armstrong went to the Mets two picks later. Yorke currently has a poor .677 OPS with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate.
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Kudos to Scott for realizing he underestimated the potential of “PCA” as a prospect. Just don’t expect him to dwell on this realization in public interviews again.
“Hopefully,” Scott wrote Thursday on Twitter/X, “this is the last time I speak on this topic.”
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