Opposition research: Pete Crow-Armstrong

Do you know which player currently leads the National League in bWAR? Smarter readers will be able to deduce that it is the subject of this article: Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.

This took me by surprise, and it isn’t just my natural bias against players with hyphenated names. (For one thing, it makes writing about him more difficult.) As a rookie in 2024, Crow-Armstrong was just a good defender who was somewhat of a liability with the bat. (Kind of like Johan Rojas but without the lapses.)

The following will horrify a certain subset of readers, but I’m also biased against players whose primary value comes from their defense. As the 2025 Phillies have shown us, defense can make a…