Pete Crow-Armstrong Just Had the Greatest 40-40 Season Ever

Image courtesy of Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Cubs Video

During the final week of the season, Pete Crow-Armstrong swiped his 40th bag of 2026, becoming the seventh player in history to join the 40-40 club. The Harvard-Westlake product’s season has been nothing short of historic, but where does it rank among the other six seasons?

The 40-40 club features seven teams: the Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Chicago Cubs. There are only two American League teams in the group; the Cubs became the fifth National League team. PCA is also the group’s fifth outfielder—Alex Rodriguez helmed shortstop for the Mariners and Shohei Ohtani was the Dodgers’ designated-hitter. In his age-24 season, Crow-Armstrong is the third youngest member of the club, behind only A-Rod and founding member José Canseco.

Ohtani is well ahead of everyone with 54 home runs. (The Japanese-born superstar is also the sole member of the 50-50 club.) Crow-Armstrong clubbed 45 home runs, good enough for third. On the basepaths, Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. leads the group with 73 bags swiped, but Crow-Armstrong’s 85.4% stolen base percentage ranks second only to Ohtani’s 93.7%. Minus Alfonso Soriano, every member drove in at least 100 runs. Bonds generated a 188 OPS+, a kitten’s whisker ahead of Ohtani’s 187. Crow-Armstrong's 155 OPS+ places him fifth among the seven.

By raw batting statistics alone, he lands in the bottom half of the 40-40 club. That doesn’t undercut his season, though. Across more than 150 years of the sport, this has proven to be one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball. Crow-Armstrong, notably, paces the group in fWAR (10.6). None of the other six went 40-40 while providing Platinum Glove defense in center field.

Canseco, Acuña Jr., and Ohtani won the Most Valuable Player award in their 40-40 seasons. Crow-Armstrong, the NL MVP frontrunner, will likely become the fourth. What’s crazy is that he keeps evolving. He adjusted his stance by standing deeper in the box and bringing his feet closer together, cutting his chase rate. On top of that, his walk-rate more than doubled from 4.5% in 2025 to 11.4% in 2026. This was the largest increase among qualified hitters. Alex Bregman’s sensei-like presence in the clubhouse for the next four seasons further elevates the outfielder's ceiling.

It's tough to beat Ohtani's 50-50 epic or Acuña's 70-steal masterpiece. Heck, Bonds broke into the club despite being walked at basically twice the rate of everyone else. But between Crow-Armstrong's elite defense, rapidly improving plate discipline, and knack for clutch moments, there's at least a case to be made that he just put together one of the most impressive seasons in baseball history.