Chasing Greatness: Pete Crow-Armstrong Has a Chance to Join Baseball History's Elite

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

It's great to be recognized by your peers, as Pete Crow-Armstrong was when the Cubs center fielder was selected for the National League All-Star team by player vote. It's great to play on a field with the very best of your peers, as Crow-Armstrong did when he replaced starter Andy Pages mid-game Tuesday night. There's just one problem: Arguably, Crow-Armstrong has no peers right now.

At the All-Star break, Crow-Armstrong is on pace to meet each of the following criteria this season, according to Baseball Reference:

• 40 or more batting runs above average
• 5 or more baserunning runs above average
• 15 or more fielding runs above average

That magnitude of well-rounded excellence is extremely rare. How much so? Here are all the player-seasons that meet those three criteria, in baseball history:

• Willie Mays, 1958
• Henry Aaron, 1961
• Mays, 1964
• Rickey Henderson, 1980
• Henderson, 1990
• Craig Biggio, 1997
• Álex Rodríguez, 2000
• Mike Trout, 2012
• Mookie Betts, 2018

There have, of course, been several other seasons in which a player was more valuable overall, and simply had their value more concentrated in their bat and/or glove. The list above, though, is a pretty neat collection of the best players in the history of the game, in terms of showing all five tools and the remarkable ability to put all of them to work at once.

But wait! The company gets even more exclusive. Since May 22, Crow-Armstrong has been on such a torrid pace at the plate that, if he keeps up at anywhere near that clip, he could get to 50 batting runs. If he does, he'll be in a group barely half that size. Only Mays (both years), Henderson (1990 only), Rodríguez, Trout and Betts have gotten to 50 batting runs in a season in which they were also so good in the field and on the bases.

Neither metrically (you aren't obligated to believe that the values assigned by Baseball Reference are correct, especially when it comes to fielding) nor philosophically does this exclude considering other players as the game's most well-rounded ever. Johnny Bench had extraordinary value as an elite hitter and superb defensive catcher, and he ran well, too—for a catcher. It's not wholly fair to punish such a player for not being an elite baserunner, and after all, baserunning is much less important than hitting or fielding, even if it's disproportionately fun to watch and can feel game-breaking when done at the level we've seen from Crow-Armstrong. Cal Ripken Jr. wasn't consistently elite with the bat, but for a long time, he was an excellent defensive shortstop, and he had two years (1984 and 1991) when he easily cleared the non-baserunning thresholds here. Roberto Clemente was incredibly well-rounded; Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio have to come up in this conversation. Shohei Ohtani is, of course, a unique case.

Still, you can argue cogently that Crow-Armstrong is in a race to join a list of the half-dozen most well-rounded superstars in baseball history. Comps to Mays, Henderson, Rodríguez, Trout or even Betts would have felt ludicrously optimistic even a few months ago, but the talent Crow-Armstrong is putting on display has gone from powerful but conventional to nuclear. He's turned a corner at the plate, and as a result, his all-around excellence has reached a new level. In the unofficial second half of the season, one of the best stories around the Cubs will be whether their best player can complete his MVP case and claim a place among the best players ever—if only, so far, for one season.

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