Chicago Cubs third base coach Willie Harris has seen plenty of great outfielders between his 12 years playing in the majors and his career as a big-league coach.
Watching rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong patrol center field since he debuted last September has Harris envisioning big things for the 22-year-old speedster.
“He’s surrounded by some really good information here, and he’s absorbing it and taking it all in,” Harris told the Tribune. “And it’s going to come out once he gets his to prime — he’s going to be one of the best players in the game.”
The best defensive players on the baseball diamond can make difficult plays appear routine.
Crow-Armstrong’s defensive prowess in center field has been an elite part of his game since the 2020 first-round draft pick began his professional career. And then there are moments like the ones delivered in the outfield last week at Dodger Stadium when he made two spectacular catches, including a home run robbery to end the game, that made his defensive ability seem worthy of a Gold Glove award.
“He’s a wild card in that it’s a whole new factor just to play around,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “There are balls that your whole life that’s a double in your head, but he’s catching it on his feet or the ball that he slid and caught, maybe that’s the right fielder’s ball sometimes, but he also had a bead on it, and so it’s his. For all of us, we’re learning to play alongside him and make sure that we can at least not get in his way.
“He’s just such a unique level of athlete and ability to impact the game that I think it’s just going to get better and better the more that we all play together, and the more that he learns his best version of himself at this level.”
In the Cubs’ 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics in Monday’s series opener, Crow-Armstrong’s bunting ability and speed set up a five-run second inning. He deftly placed a two-strike bunt down the third base line for an infield single to give the Cubs two on with nobody out against A’s starter Joey Estes. Miguel Amaya (RBI single), Ian Happ (RBI single) and Dansby Swanson (three-run home run) followed with timely hits to give left-hander Shota Imanaga all the run support he needed.
PCA with a 2-strike bunt single
pic.twitter.com/Y7dT4PFFfe
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) September 17, 2024
Imanaga struck out a career-high 11 batters in six innings with the only damage coming on a two-run home run by Brent Rooker in the third. The A’s had no answer for Imanaga’s splitter, which yielded 11 whiffs on 16 swings.
“Before you know the game, looking at the numbers, there’s a lot of guys who hit a lot of home runs and looking at their offense, they’re good hitting team, I had a game plan going in, and then saw what the other hitters were doing, and then made adjustments towards that,” Imanaga said about his splitter through interpreter Edwin Stanberry.
Crow-Armstrong has tough competition to win the National League Gold Glove award at his position — the Washington Nationals’ Jacob Young and Colorado Rockies’ Brenton Doyle are also having stellar seasons. The rookie’s 14 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) lead all big-league center fielders and his 12 Outs Above Average (OAA) rank fourth. Crow-Armstrong has put up these metrics while still having room to improve defensively.
Crow-Armstrong appears at his best the higher the difficulty level of the play. His seven 5-star outs (fly balls with a 0-25% catch probability) are tied for most among center fielders with a 43.8% success rate, second-best.
“I always have a special place in my heart for players like Pete because he has to play hard, he has to do little things that matter to help his team win,” said Harris, who works with the Cubs’ outfielders. “He has to play good defense. He has to run the bases well. He’s gonna hit some home runs, but he doesn’t have to do that. I admire the way he goes about his business.”
Crow-Armstrong already has shown growth in the outfield this season, particularly with his first-step quickness, accuracy with his throws and decision-making of when to try throwing out a runner versus hitting the cut-off man.
“Pete’s done a really good job, and I think he can get better in center field,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He had a great night (Tuesday in Los Angeles). I still think he can be better, and I think he will be better so there’s room to grow there.”
The areas where Crow-Armstrong can improve in center field include his outfield communication, catching balls he gets his glove on and game awareness.
“It’s not like we’re talking about some guy that’s making drastic changes,” Willie Harris told the Tribune. “He’s making some really good plays for us defensively. And I think a lot of that has to do with you have a Gold Glover in left field, you have a Gold Glover in right field, and you have a future Gold Glover in center field.
“He just has to play, he has to make mistakes. He has to learn from those mistakes. Earlier in this season, he was making throws from center field and air-mailing them home, allowing the base runner to take the extra base — that’s gone. But until that can be gone, you have to go through it.”
The developments by the Cubs’ two key rookies, Crow-Armstrong and first baseman Michael Busch, are two of the most encouraging results this year. Busch was named National League player of the week on Monday, becoming the first Cubs position player to earn the award since Seiya Suzuki in April 2022. Busch hit .478 with four home runs, 11 RBIs, two doubles, one walk, seven runs scored, a 1.087 slugging percentage and .480 on-base percentage in six games last week.
“If you want to play in this league for a long time, that’s what the league requires you to do and forces you to do is to continue to make adjustments,” Counsell said. “And the players that play for a long time kind of don’t get credit enough for making adjustments. … The hitters go through stretches where they’re missing some pitches. But in the end, I think the consistency of what Michael has done this season has really shown up. And it’s not surprising that he keeps coming back.”