Pete Crow-Armstrong is on the verge of a rare MLB feat. His hitting coach explains the leap

Visibly irritated, Pete Crow-Armstrong tossed up his bat and snatched it midair with his right hand Wednesday night, beginning the slow walk from home plate back toward Wrigley Field’s home dugout.

The crowd of 35,779 had just chanted “M-V-P, M-V-P!” In that fleeting moment, it didn’t matter that the Chicago Cubs held a six-run lead over the Atlanta Braves in the eighth inning. Or that Crow-Armstrong already launched his 43rd and 44th home runs during a game the Cubs would win handily.

Striking out with the bases loaded bothered Crow-Armstrong, who had also filled up the box score with a triple and a walk. His inner drive always wants more.

As a prodigy growing up in Southern California, Crow-Armstrong played for USA Baseball’s 12-and-under national team and a Harvard-Westlake program that has recently produced multiple first-round picks and All-Stars.

Even with that elite pedigree, the idea of Crow-Armstrong becoming the seventh member of Major League Baseball’s 40-40 club at the age of 24 seemed outlandish. Until this year’s quantum leap in terms of his offensive approach and emotional maturity.

Crow-Armstrong needs three stolen bases over Chicago’s final nine games to complete the other part of this power/speed equation. It would place him in rare territory in the sport’s history.

Baseball Reference is nearing 24,000 MLB debuts on its database, and only six players have posted a season with at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases: Jose Canseco (1988); Barry Bonds (1996); Alex Rodriguez (1998); Alfonso Soriano (2006); Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023); and Shohei Ohtani (2024).

To put Crow-Armstrong’s mind-boggling development in context, The Athletic recently spoke with Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly inside the Wrigley Field clubhouse.

As a California native who previously worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kelly heard of the young Crow-Armstrong before he actually met him. Through mutual connections, Kelly was already aware of Crow-Armstrong’s trajectory in high school. By the time the Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong in the deal that sent Javier Báez to the New York Mets at the 2021 trade deadline, Kelly was serving as Chicago’s minor-league hitting coordinator.

Kelly first connected with Crow-Armstrong while he was recovering from shoulder surgery at the organization’s Arizona complex, and then tracked the progress during his 2022 minor-league season, which saw him produce 16 home runs over 101 games at two A-ball affiliates.

Kelly: Especially at that age, when you just looked at his frame, it wasn’t something that you’re thinking he’s even going to hit 30. You kind of thought, in a dream world, that he would hit probably 20 to 25.

He probably surprised us more in that first year with some of the power. He didn’t have the pull-side power yet. He can drive balls out to left-center field in a way that a lot of left-handers can’t. A lot of the raw power that you see, especially in batting practice, it’s pull-side power, it’s cheating, it’s kind of getting the head out.

But the way Pete drove balls in the game was out to left-center field. And then you’d always kind of think, “Man, if he ever does get to some pull power, there’s more in there, for sure.”

You saw the bat speed. You saw the way that he was able to naturally lift the ball to that opposite side of the field and still have plenty behind it to drive it out of the ballpark.

Selective aggressiveness is one of those baseball terms that’s easy to talk about during spring training but almost impossible to consistently execute over the course of a 162-game schedule. Yet Crow-Armstrong has nearly tripled his walks from last season without dimming his power. He’s somehow tapped into a higher offensive level, exercising more patience without sacrificing his explosiveness.

Kelly: He swings hard. That’s one thing that stands out when you talk about “A” swings and “B” swings. You’ve seen, throughout this crazy stretch, that he’s getting his “A” swing off a ton. What Pete has the luxury of is his “A” swing works at the bottom of the zone, and it works in the middle of the zone, and it works out over the plate.

Everybody talks about the high fastball and swing-and-miss — and there were some issues with that early with him — but he’s covering that. It’s not that there’s a ton of damage. But it’s not an out, and it’s not a swing-and-miss. It’s a foul ball. He’s managing the top part of that zone.

Pitchers are scared to throw in. They don’t throw in very much at all, so he doesn’t get a ton of pitches that are hard-hard on the inner line. A lot of times, they miss out over, and that’s where a lot of the power is. And then you can’t bury a breaking ball low enough. Because if you make a mistake — and even if it’s a ball — we’ve seen what he can do to it.

What’s PCA like?

That’s a layered question for those who spend time with him behind the scenes. The performer on the field exudes a different energy at his locker and around the batting cage.

That environment suits Kelly, who comes from an extended baseball family. His father, Mike, once played in the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor-league system. His brother Jason is a longtime college pitching coach now at Northwestern. An uncle, Pat Kelly, is the manager of the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, with decades of experience. A cousin, Casey Kelly, was a first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox who was traded along with Anthony Rizzo to the San Diego Padres in the blockbuster Adrián González deal.

Now, Kelly now has three boys of his own (ages 15, 13 and 8) who naturally gravitate toward Crow-Armstrong.

Kelly: There’s the adrenaline and the highs of a baseball game. That’s what people see. They see that side of it. But then I get to see the methodical, very thoughtful work. He’s really done a great job of managing how much he swings and not going into a rabbit hole. He’s figured out that sometimes less is more.

For him, it’s rhythm and timing and athleticism. It’s not like a swing mechanic where my hands have to be in this place, my front elbow has to be at this point. There’s a lot of rhythm to it, which he’s able to maintain.

He’s incredible with my kids. He’s so engaging with them, asking them about their tournaments and how they did. He’s a superstar, but he went through a lot of that stuff as a high-profile amateur. He’s invested.

People see the competitor, and they see the fiery throwing of the helmets, playing kind of balls to the wall. There’s a price that comes with that, what people think of you. But then in here, he’s always very thought-out.

You see him in his interviews. It’s not like he’s a wild card. It’s not like he’s going to go ballistic on (the media) after a game when you ask him a question. He thinks about the questions, and I think he’s really good with you guys, giving you a good perspective and not just brushing it off.