Pete Crow-Armstrong’s errors adding up for Cubs, from taunting a fan to misplays on the field

It’s no coincidence that Pete Crow-Armstrong is suddenly becoming a defensive liability right after his expletive-laced taunting of a female fan went viral on social media. The Chicago Cubs have long heralded him as an all-world defender, while also acknowledging his struggles to control his emotions.

A mental reset, of sorts, is coming with Thursday’s off day, a well-timed break for a Cubs team that is flailing in all phases of the game. But this moment appears to be especially uncomfortable for Crow-Armstrong, who signed up to be the new face of the franchise when he agreed to a six-year, $115 million contract extension before Opening Day.

The boos echoed throughout Wrigley Field on Wednesday night after Crow-Armstrong’s error in center field, a Little League-style misplay that handed the Milwaukee Brewers three early runs on the way to a 5-0 victory and a three-game sweep of their big-city rivals.

“Genuinely laughable,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That just can’t happen.”

Mistakes are part of the game, but this one occurred within a much larger context.

Go back to Sunday afternoon on the South Side, where Crow-Armstrong tried to make an impossible catch at the Rate Field fence and barked a vulgar response back at a woman who was heckling him, part of the jeering from some Chicago White Sox fans whom he felt crossed a line.

Once the video of that incident surfaced and became a national story, Crow-Armstrong met with reporters at his Wrigley Field locker before Monday’s game and said he regretted his poor choice of words and the bad example it set for young baseball fans.

Fined by Major League Baseball for that interaction, Crow-Armstrong then watched a seemingly routine flyball pop out of his glove during Tuesday’s game, an error that did not directly lead to a big inning or another loss. But the moment encapsulated a 24-year-old player still learning on the job and trying to process all these impulses.

“One thing I can fall back on is that it’s never really a lack of focus,” Crow-Armstrong said. “But trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production that I’ve given this team and this city, and not acting how I should, I think anything physically usually starts mentally.

“I think that’s just what I’m showing everybody right now.”

After this sequence of events, Cubs manager Craig Counsell still gave a firm “no” when asked whether he was considering giving Crow-Armstrong a breather beyond Thursday’s off day.

The Gold Glove defender whiffed Wednesday when David Hamilton, Milwaukee’s No. 9 hitter, lined a ball back up the middle in the second inning. Instead of stopping at a single, Hamilton circled the bases as the Brewers grabbed a 3-0 lead, again making the Cubs look discombobulated.

“Look, he made a mistake,” Counsell said. “He made a bad play, and it was a costly play. He missed the ball in front of him. He got his feet kind of caught in between, and then he didn’t know if he wanted to go get it. It’s like an infielder that got caught on an in-between hop. Things happen, and we got to move on.”

If it took a village to help Crow-Armstrong grow up in professional baseball — an idea he championed while spreading around the credit for his development — then it stands to reason that it will have to be another group effort to redirect one of the sport’s most dynamic players.

Mired in an offensive slump that has now carried over to his defense, Crow-Armstrong is hitting .225 with 54 strikeouts through 50 games. His five home runs and 12 stolen bases do not reflect the power/speed potential he displayed during last season’s MVP-level first half. He knows the Cubs are looking for some kind of spark.

“I haven’t contributed to any games where I’ve given people a chance to feel any sort of good way about what I’m doing out there,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s just up to me to turn that stuff around. Saving energy, not going in there and slamming a bunch of stuff and making a scene when I really don’t feel like I got that right to, right now.”

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