PCA rewarded for historic season with unanimous NL MVP Award

CHICAGO – During the final home game of this past season, a considerable number of fans in Wrigley Field’s bleacher seats were waving green flags . Pete Crow-Armstrong did not have to look hard to spot them as he made his way out to center field that afternoon, and he later admitted feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Those flags – featuring the made-for-chanting “M-V-Pete” rallying cry – were in celebration of a season for the ages from the Cubs’ star. They also served as a prediction. Crow-Armstrong’s multiple-month surge turned a conversation into a debate and, finally, into the only possible outcome on Thursday night. Crow-Armstrong is the National League’s Most Valuable Player. “It tends to be hard for me to process things right after they happen,” Crow-Armstrong said, “especially something like this, where I’m really just feeling lucky.” All-time MVP Award winners By the time the smoke had cleared on Crow-Armstrong’s incredible 2026 campaign, the only question, really, was whether he would take home the MVP in unanimous fashion . The voting body of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America answered that with 30 first-place nods , giving the Cubs center fielder an MVP victory unlike any in team history. Crow-Armstrong is the first unanimous MVP for the Cubs, whose previous winners since the BBWAA began handing out the award in 1931 were Kris Bryant (2016), Sammy Sosa (1998), Andre Dawson (‘87), Ryne Sandberg (‘84), Ernie Banks (1958-59), Hank Sauer (‘52), Phil Cavarretta (‘45) and Gabby Hartnett (‘35). Crow-Armstrong finished ahead of runner-up Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ two-way superstar who had won three straight MVP trophies and four within the previous five seasons, including in each of the last two tours with Los Angeles. For Chicago’s star center fielder to unseat Ohtani was no small feat, but that shows the heights Crow-Armstrong reached in 2026. Crow-Armstrong said he did not waste mental energy on the MVP race with Ohtani during the season, but he has now allowed himself to put the win in perspective. “Tonight’s kind of the right time for me to appreciate who I won the award over,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That guy has been outright the best baseball player in the world for the last 10 years. … It was me vs. me every day. I would be a fool to go up there trying to dethrone somebody and whatnot, just because I wouldn’t have gotten the most out of myself if that’s how I approached it.” For starters, Crow-Armstrong finished with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases, giving him only the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history and first for the Cubs. He joined Ohtani (2024) and Alfonso Soriano (‘06) as the only players in baseball history to compile at least 45 homers, 40 steals and 30 doubles in one year. Crow-Armstrong ended with an MLB-leading 10.6 WAR (per FanGraphs), which ranked second in Cubs history to only Rogers Hornsby (11.0 in 1929). The center fielder was 3.6 WAR ahead of the second-ranked player (Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. had 7.0), making this the first time since 1956 (Mickey Mantle over Duke Snider) that a gap of at least 3.0 existed between the Nos. 1-2 players in baseball. Crow-Armstrong hit .280 with a .372 on-base percentage while leading the NL in both slugging (.570) and OPS (.942). His 45 homers were tied for the Major League lead with Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, while Crow-Armstrong’s 84 extra-base hits , 119 runs and 357 total bases each led MLB outright. “[The MVP] kind of paints the picture of how set up I was all year,” Crow-Armstrong said. “One-hundred-plus RBIs out of the leadoff spot. One-hundred-plus runs out of the leadoff spot. That all just, I mean, it literally tells you that you scored because somebody drove you in, or you drove somebody in because somebody was on base.” Get the latest from the Cubs Have the latest news, ticket information, and more from the Cubs and MLB delivered right to your inbox. Sign up The massive offensive leap Crow-Armstrong enjoyed in 2026 stemmed, in part, from an improved dedication to plate discipline , combined with noticeable swing changes . It was a season full of seemingly physics-defying catches and late-game heroics . Crow-Armstrong hit for a cycle, enjoyed a three-homer game (with Sosa and Soriano among the team legends in attendance), had a game against the White Sox with a leadoff and a walk-off home run and topped Billy Williams’ club record for homers in one year by a lefty batter. Defensively, Crow-Armstrong was the anchor for a Cubs’ defense that took home the NL Team Gold Glove Award . His MLB-best fielding run value (+26) was the highest in one season for an outfielder under Statcast, while his +26 outs above average tied Byron Buxton’s 2017 showing for the most in one year for an outfielder. “It’s funny that everyone seems to be talking about the offense,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I feel like I’ve spent the last five years of professional baseball trying to prove to people that I was more than a glove-first player.” The Cubs believed in Crow-Armstrong’s potential when they sent Javier Báez to the Mets at the 2021 Trade Deadline and landed the center fielder as a prospect. The level he found this past season – turning “P-C-A” chants into cries of “M-V-P” by season’s end – was not something anyone would claim to have seen coming. “It’s the best position-player season I’ve ever seen, personally,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said at the end of the season, before then making a prediction. “He’s going to win the MVP. He’ll win the Hank Aaron Award. He’ll win the Platinum Glove. To do all those things in one season is incredible, and we’re just lucky to have him.” Crow-Armstrong did, in fact, pick up the Platinum Glove in the NL, along with his second career Gold Glove , before then also being named the NL’s Hank Aaron Award recipient . And the BBWAA delivered the trifecta by naming the center fielder the MVP in overwhelming fashion. “In the most humble way I can say it,” Crow-Armstrong said, “I still don’t feel satisfied with the product that I put on the field this year. It sounds so melancholy, but I’m so happy being able to say this, because I really just know there’s more. I’ve decided there’s more. That’s how I got here. … This is definitely a huge accomplishment of mine, this award. “But success in my eyes is being called a winner. And I’m not necessarily there yet. So I will continue to fight myself and be kind to myself and give myself grace, and hopefully I can be talking to you as a World Series champion and MVP.”