New contract sets up Crow-Armstrong as Cubs’ franchise player

Posted March 24, 2026 7:40 pm

By Patrick Mooney

As Pete Crow-Armstrong developed into an All-Star center fielder last season, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer kept hearing the same thing from certain fans: Oh, my God, my son loves PCA so much.

As if your kid was the only one with a new favorite player. “It’s everybody,” Hoyer recalled last summer. “Everyone says that.”

Discounting sentimentality, Hoyer once made all those Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez jerseys outdated, continuing the breakup of the 2016 World Series team with a sweeping sell-off at the 2021 trade deadline. Amid that unpopular flurry of deals, however, the Cubs found their next potential superstar.

Now, Crow-Armstrong’s connection to Wrigley Field has pulled him and the big-market franchise into an agreement on a six-year, $115 million contract that begins in 2027 and includes no options, according to sources briefed on the deal.

With both parties wanting a resolution by Thursday’s season opener, negotiations between Hoyer and Crow-Armstrong’s agent, Ryan Hamill of CAA, lasted until nearly the end of spring training, setting up the Cubs to make a huge Opening Day splash.

Crow-Armstrong is positioned to become a free agent after his age-30 season, and escalators for 2031 and 2032 can raise the deal’s overall value to as much as $133 million.

This organization is driven by statistical models for trades, draft picks and free agents. The business side is run with fiscal discipline. The clubhouse is filled with routine-oriented players who are serious about their craft.

Building around Crow-Armstrong, whose 24th birthday is Wednesday, checks all of those boxes. His youth, Gold Glove defense and base running create a solid floor for the investment. The Cubs wouldn’t be doing this deal if they didn’t project significant surplus value in the future. And club officials have seen enough behind the scenes to know he’s a baseball gym rat.

“Pete is an extremely hard worker,” new Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman said. “He loves the game. He plays with a passion that’s contagious. He brings an energy that is incredible to the room. He’s a superstar human being and player.”

Indeed, there is an intangible factor with Crow-Armstrong that can’t be fully accounted for on a spreadsheet.

The ongoing dialogue between Hoyer and Hamill previously picked up during spring training last year, when the sides exchanged proposals around the Tokyo Series, without any real sense of urgency.

At that moment, Crow-Armstrong decided to bet on his unique skills and potential for growth. When those talks leaked out, he made a point to say how much he appreciated the communications with Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins, reiterating he would “absolutely love” to sign a long-term contract with the Cubs someday.

In terms of reference points, CAA’s baseball division previously handled Corbin Carroll’s eight-year, $111 million contract extension with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which was finalized in March 2023. With a club option for 2031, the outfielder could earn at least $134 million over the course of the deal.

On the lower end, Atlanta Braves center fielder Michael Harris II signed an eight-year, $72 million contract extension (plus two club options) as a rookie in 2022. Another defense-first player, Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, signed a seven-year, $63.5 million contract extension (plus a club option) in 2024.

In Chicago, the lack of contract extensions — combined with a down cycle for the farm system and pandemic-related budget cuts — forced Hoyer into a rebuild when he took over for Theo Epstein after the 2020 season.

For context, though, it wasn’t an 0-for. Epstein and Hoyer executed one contract extension with Rizzo during their previous rebuild. Another deal helped keep Kyle Hendricks in a Cubs uniform for 11 seasons. And the Cubs were making substantial progress with the Báez negotiations — until Major League Baseball shut down spring training in March 2020.

Hoyer applied all of those lessons to his new regime. In trading Báez to the New York Mets before he could become a free agent, the Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong, a first-round pick who was recovering from shoulder surgery but would eventually exhibit qualities reminiscent of “El Mago.”

Recent estimates by Sportico, CNBC and Forbes placed Chicago’s franchise value in a range between $5 billion and $6.48 billion. With this long-term partnership, the Cubs can turn up their “PCA” marketing to another level.

“If you have power and speed, you have the two things that end up on ‘SportsCenter,’” Hoyer said during that interview last season. “Pete also has a really joyful way of playing. Yes, he’ll spike his bat and stuff like that, but you can tell he’s having fun. There’s a flair for the dramatic.”

After the fans overwhelmingly voted Crow-Armstrong into last year’s All-Star Game, he fell into a deep offensive slump, hitting .216 with a .634 OPS in the second half. He had reached the All-Star break with 25 home runs but finished the regular season with “only” 31.

Surely, the Cubs would have taken that number at this time last year. As bench coach Ryan Flaherty recently acknowledged: “Certainly, last spring training, we’re sitting here like, ‘Is this going to work?’” That was being realistic about how hard hitting is in today’s game, and optimistic he would grind through those inevitable struggles.

“His head doesn’t get too big,” Flaherty said. “He’s always been very mature in the way that he handles himself and deals with all the external things that come with being Pete Crow-Armstrong.”

That offensive identity is still to be determined. On Crow-Armstrong’s Baseball Reference page, the list of similar batters through the age of 23 includes the following names: Roger Maris, Byron Buxton, Ian Happ, Jesse Barfield, Bobby Bonds and Corey Patterson.

During the World Baseball Classic this month, Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd observed how Crow-Armstrong kept asking questions, hanging around players such as Bregman and Team USA captain Aaron Judge, soaking in the experience.

The Cubs will find out just how good Crow-Armstrong can be as a franchise player at Wrigley Field.

“The evolution of Pete is still very much happening,” Boyd said, “and it will continue. Anyone that tries to put a finished product label on him at any point — it’s wrong. He’s going to continue to develop.”