Pete Crow-Armstrong Is In A Mental Slump And Needs A Day Or Two Off

Pete Crow-Armstrong missed a fly ball double hit by Miguel Vargas last Sunday, which set off a chain of events that has made this a bad week for the young star. (Photo by Michael Hirschuber/Getty Images)

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Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs needs a day; he needs a break, a breather. He needs to collect himself. “PCA,” as he is known around the Chicagoland Area and throughout baseball, was an early MVP candidate last season, when he got off to a torrid start. Unfortunately, his second half was considerably cooler, having him finish the season with a respectable .247/.287/.481 slash line, with 31 homers and 72 extra base hits (however, 25 of those dingers and 50 of those extra base hits came before the All-Star break). That said, he was still the first Cub to go 30/30 (home runs and stolen bases) since Sammy Sosa last did it in 1995 (and no one is questioning the validity of PCA’s numbers).

Prior this season, Crow-Armstrong signed a six-year, $115 million contract to keep him on the North Side past his first years of free agency. Maybe he is trying too hard to live up to the lofty expectations and dollars, as he is off to a mediocre start to the 2026 campaign. As of today, he is slashing .225/.302/.257. There was great hope that newly-signed third baseman Alex Bregman would help the young outfielder get a better handle on the strike zone and have him swing at less bad pitches. Well, the bad news is that his chase rate is right about where it was last year (40.7% vs. 41.7%), which is nearly 43% worse than the league average. The good news is that he is swinging at fewer first pitches (44.6%, the lowest in his career), but he still has a whiff rate of 28% (league average is 25%).

Through Wednesday, PCA has five home runs and 12 total extra base hits. He has walked 12 times (which is a horrible 6%), but considering that he only walked a total of 29 times last season in 647 plate appearances (4.5%), there has been some improvement.

The Cubs currently sit in second place in the National League Central, a game and half back of the Milwaukee Brewers who swept three games in Wrigley Field to start the week. Chicago is riding a five-game losing streak as the hapless Astros come to town for the holiday weekend.

Over the last eleven games, since PCA had two hits against the Rangers on May 8th, the team is 2-9, and the former first-round draft pick is slashing .108/.233/.189, with just four hits (a homer and three singles), four walks, and twelve strikeouts. But that is not the worst of it.

Last Sunday, in the fifth inning of the final game of the Crosstown Classic against the White Sox, Crow-Armstrong went back to the wall to make a catch on a deep drive off the bat of Miguel Vargas. He came up empty-handed, and two runs scored to tie the game. A female fan sitting in the Patio area against the fence began heckling the young ballplayer, and he lashed back.

Suffice it to say, it was not a good look. However, kudos to the young man, who owned the incident. After the game, when reporters swarmed his locker, a despondent Crow-Armstrong said the following:

“I think I just regret my choice of words the most, and who that affects in my life directly and indirectly. I don’t think that any of the women in my life would think I would say those kinds of words regularly…So I’m just bummed out about the word choice and a bunch of little kids going to social media and seeing that as well. I am intense on the field. And, in a moment like that, I think I just let it get away from me a little bit.”

He then went on to say that he did not “want to represent the other guys in this clubhouse” with the kind of behavior he displayed on the field.

His manager, Craig Counsell, when asked about the incident, didn’t mince words or sugarcoat it:

“Pete made a mistake…with his choice of words…I think he’s aware of that…He made a mistake. It’s a reality of this job. It happens. Fan interactions happen. You want to try to keep them positive, even when they’re not. Sometimes when it’s in a really emotional situation, it’s difficult, but it’s still a requirement of the job.”

Counsell was ready to move on. MLB was not as forgiving, fining the ballplayer $5,000 for his outburst, but issuing no additional punishment.

Crow-Armstrong was back in the lineup on Monday evening against the Brewers, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in a 9-3 loss.

On Tuesday, PCA went 1-for-4 with a single. But, in the top of the fourth, the center fielder dropped a can-of-corn fly ball off the bat of Sal Frelick. It was PCA’s second error of the season. Ben Brown was able to work around the mistake, stranding Frelick at third. The Brewers would go on to win 5-2.

On Wednesday, Crow-Armstrong went 0-for-3 with two more strikeouts. In the top of the second, with two runners on, David Hamilton hit a one-hop liner to center field that PCA simply muffed, allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall and three runs to score. Kyle Harrison and DL Hall shut out the Cubs 5-0, so it was not as if the error cost Chicago the game (you have to score to win), but what should have been run-scoring single immediately turned into a three-run deficit. For the Cubs, there was no coming back from that.

After Wednesday’s game, PCA told WGN News:

“Yesterday and today are genuinely laughable. One thing I can fall back on is that it’s never really a lack of focus, but trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production that I’ve given this team…and not acting how I should. Anything physical usually starts mental, and I think that’s just what I’m showing everybody right now . So, I just show up and keep pushing. But that can’t happen. That kind of stuff, that can’t happen.”

Crow-Armstrong played in 157 games last season, and he has played in every game so far this season. Everyone needs a break. Sometimes it is for physical reasons, other times it is mental, which the player seemed to acknowledge. Counsell would be well-served to give the 24-year-old a breather. Allow him to sit on the bench for a game or two and collect his thoughts and emotions, so when he gets back on the field, he can collect some more hits and some more impossible-to-catch balls in the outfield.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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