Roman Anthony's Extension Could Serve as Cubs' Baseline for Pete Crow-Armstrong

[Paul Niemiec]

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Red Sox are clearly confident in this wave of prospects. Back in April, they handed an eight-year extension to rookie infielder Kristian Campbell. They, did it again this week when they gave Roman Anthony, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, his own massive extension. It’s another eight-year pact worth $130 million that can reach up to $230 million with incentives. It also comes with a club option for 2034. While the Campbell extension may have been a tad premature, the Anthony contract looks like an immediate win. Through 194 plate appearances, Anthony is hitting .276/.392/.417 with a 126 OPS+. Alex Cora has him hitting cleanup for a Red Sox team that has vaulted itself right in the middle of the playoff picture. Now, it's worth wondering how soon we will see an extension for Marcelo Mayer, which would lock up their “Big Three” for almost the next decade. It is fun to speculate how much of this hinged on finding a taker for Devers, but the point is, young stars are willing to sign an extension if the money is right and they’re put in a competitive environment.

Now, what does this deal mean for the Cubs and their star center fielder? For starters, it means the Cubs and Pete Crow-Armstrong were on different wavelengths when they reportedly offered him an extension in the range of five years and $75 million This was reported back in April, before Crow-Armstrong really became "PCA". At the time, he was a stellar defensive outfielder with questions about what his offensive ceiling would be. He ended up betting on himself and now that extension worth $75 million looks laughable. With the Anthony contract, we see the framework for what it would take to get a deal done, and that would be the Cubs doubling their offer and then some.

Of course, Crow-Armstrong also brings the elite defense and baserunning to the table, whereas Anthony is very good (but not outright elite) in those areas. For the sake of this exercise, let's assume the Cubs would need to offer their young All-Star $150 million guaranteed just to get negotiations started; remember, Crow-Armstrong is a few years closer to free agency right now than Anthony was when he inked his deal This should seem like a no-brainer, but it's a lot more complicated when talking about a team who just extended Jed Hoyer. We know he likes to operate this team with budget constraints, so it seems like there may be hesitancy in offering a nine-figure deal to anyone, even Crow-Armstrong.

The Cubs have him under team control through 2030, so it's reasonable to think that an extension could wait, at least until the Kyle Tucker situation is figured out. The Anthony contract is structured to where he is not making over $10 million in salary until 2029, so backloading a Crow-Armstrong contract would give the Cubs the best chance to build the team they have now into a juggernaut. Maybe this would allow them to approach Tucker with a shorter-term, higher-AAV deal. There are clearly ways for the calendar to turn to 2026 with both outfielders locked up by the Cubs, but it just depends on how comfortable ownership is with handing out not one, but two deals that would approach or blow by the previous record set by Jason Heyward. It might be more realistic to expect one or the other, but fans can dream.

The Cubs have a chance to show Crow-Armstrong that they want him to be the face of the franchise for the next decade. Ownership has a chance to show him that he is as beloved by them as he is the fans. Sure, you can point to Javier Baez or Kris Bryant as reasons not to jump the shark with handing out mega-deals, even to in-house stars. But, being risk-averse does not win championships. It's a gamble, but we have seen so many young stars signing extensions outside of Anthony and Campbell—Cal Raleigh, Jackson Merrill, Bobby Witt Jr, Julio Rodriguez, Anthony Volpe and Corbin Carroll,to name a few—that have worked out marvelously for their teams. Well, Crow-Armstrong is right up there with the best of them. He deserves to have his name added to that list.

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[Papa Cub]

I’d be sure to work with the young star on some plate discipline prior to etching any mega deal.

He’s very talented and a gifted ball player, and I hope they can work out an extension - I’d love to see him continue his career as a Cub, but work needs to be done on the offensive side of things.