The Cubs are calling up top outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. He’s expected to be activated prior to tomorrow’s game. The Cubs will need to make a 40-man roster move in order to formally select Crow-Armstrong’s contract.
Selected by the Mets with the No. 19 overall pick back in 2020, the now-21-year-old Crow-Armstrong was the headline prospect in the 2021 trade sending Javier Baez and Trevor Williams from Chicago to New York. Crow-Armstrong was already a prospect of note at the time, but his stock has skyrocketed since that swap; he currently ranks 12th on the leaguewide top-100 prospect lists at both Baseball America and MLB.com, while The Athletic’s Keith Law tabbed him 18th and FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen pegs him 23rd.
While he’s long drawn praise as a 70- or even 80-grade defender in center field (on the 20-80 scale), Crow-Armstrong has grown into more power since being traded to the Cubs and now has the look of a potential five-tool center fielder. He’s split the current season between Double-A and Triple-A, turning in a combined .283/.365/.511 batting line with 20 home runs, 26 doubles, seven triples and 37 steals (in 47 tries).
Crow-Armstrong has whiffed a bit more often than the Cubs would prefer to see, punching out at a 25.8% rate against a higher-than-average (but far from elite) 9.2% walk rate. He’s also a 21-year-old facing much older and more experienced competition, so there’s likely some hope that he can continue to polish those bat-to-ball skills and refine his pitch selection as he ages.
The big picture hope for Crow-Armstrong is that he can become the Cubs’ everyday center fielder, holding down that position for the six-plus seasons which they’ll control him via arbitration. In the short-term, however, “PCA” will give the team an alternative to the struggling Mike Tauchman, who’s batting just .163/.295/.188 in 95 plate appearances over the past month. Cody Bellinger, of course, can handle center field as well, but he’s spent a fair bit of time at first base and designated hitter since returning from a knee injury earlier this summer. Crow-Armstrong can potentially allow him to continue doing so while still upgrading the outfield defense and perhaps providing some more offense than they’re currently receiving from Tauchman.
Even if he doesn’t play everyday, Crow-Armstrong adds a dynamic defender and plus threat on the basepaths who can be used late in games. That includes both in the regular season and potentially into October. While Crow-Armstrong wasn’t on the 40-man roster when the playoff eligibility deadline passed, he was still in the organization at that point, meaning the Cubs can petition the league to add him to the playoff roster in place of an injured player. Teams do this every year, and there’s no reason to think he won’t be able to suit up during postseason play.
In terms of service time considerations, Crow-Armstrong will remain under club control for six full seasons (plus the handful of days he’ll accrue late in the current year). Barring any future optional assignments that impact the trajectory, he’ll be controllable through the 2029 season and eligible for arbitration following the 2026 campaign.
Also of note for the Cubs is that the looming promotion to the big leagues won’t impact Crow-Armstrong’s rookie status for the 2024 season. He’ll surely be on every major top-100 prospect ranking heading into the 2024 season, meaning he’ll remain eligible for the new collective bargaining agreement’s “prospect promotion incentives,” which could net the Cubs bonus draft picks based on how he fares in future award voting.
Whew thank God the Mets got three crappy months of that clown Baez and all it cost them was Crow Armstrong
Actually javy tore it up with the Mets. That second half he posted the highest OPS+ of his career. Still not worth PCA, but just saying.
Can I give this a thumbs-down in honor of Javy?
I hate to root against a kid – that’s not nice – but I will simply to spare myself the burden of encountering posts like this one. For example, it was pretty bad while Cano and Diaz were under performing and Kelenic was raking in the minors but 5 years later Kelenic has yet to have a productive full season in MLB and Diaz established himself as a premier closer again. Then there was Endy Rodriguez to the Pirates for Joey Lucchesi but Endy has lost some gloss this season at AAA and in MLB so not so much griping on social media. Hopefully PCA has a nice career for himself but without so much fanfare and success that the trade gets lumped in with Joe Foy for Amos Otis and Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. At the end of the day, Jett Williams will probably help Mets fans forget PCA regardless of his future.
No list of bad Mets trades of young talent is complete without 5 to 13 years of Ken Singleton plus Tim Foli and Mike Jorgensen for four years of Rusty Staub and one year of Mickey Lolich.
Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi
Ryan and three other players for Jim Fregosi. Indeed.
Yeah, thanks again Brodie. Genius!
It’s funny that you just say stuff without knowing anything, Baez had a slash line of .299/.371/.515, that’s an .886 ops with 9 bombs
He then missed the playoffs and booed the fans
Not necessarily. The Cubs can re-sign Bellinger this winter. The only problem is, Scott Boras is gonna start Belii’s price at like 250mil. Which the cubs definitely won’t do. But if it’s reasonable at 5/150. They might do that. He can play 1st. and DH When he needs a break.
5/150 is a bit low. Belli will get overpaid. Most all free agents at his level especially after his rebound do.
Maybe 5/175-180 with a player opt out after 2 years to test free agency again.
5/150 is a 13mil dollar per year raise. From this year. That’s a solid deal for both sides. He’s only 28 so a 5 year deal would be perfect. At 33 he’s still in his prime and can get another massive contract. 5/175 is twice what he got this year. (Almost) his deal with the cubs was 17.5mil. There is a mutual option attached to it but as a Boras client I don’t see the point of that even being added. 100% Belli will decline his side of it. Then reject the Cubs QO to him.
possibly, they need how his bat handles MLB which will impact any resigning with Bellinger
SWEET!
Wooooooooo!
A lot of people do it to honor both last names, I am likely older than you and I get it.
the comment I commented on was removed lol
Thanks for clarifying, I thought it was me missing something.
Why was it removed? I saw it. It was stupid, But I’ve seen worse.
Don’t feel bad, they deleted my comment. Censorship is alive and well in America today.
Are you referring to yourself Gary-Wally? ^_^
Bet Armstrong has a weak arm.
You would be wrong
You’ll have to eat a crow on that
No reason to take our word for it. Have a look yourself.
bleachernation.com/cubs/2023/09/06/youve-seen-pcas…
He’d rather hate on him without thinking.
Why? Ross won’t play him
Yeah, I’m excited but how’s he going to get into the game? Unless the Cubs are moving Bellie to first while Candy is out.
This may be the case. And with six days in a row of larger/trickier center field expanses coming up (Colorado & Arizona) using PCA instead of Tauchman is an easier sell.
I was thinking the same, especially in Colorado, massive outfields.
I’m hoping Canario can get in and hit a bomb while KB sits on the bench watching…
While I’m glad to o see him called up – the Cubs biggest problem lately has been lack of hitting. But when Canario was up, Ross gave him one or two ABs. I feel calling Mervis back would be a better attempt to fix what ails the team at this time.
Either way as Statefarm44 says above – someone will likely have to break Ross’s arm, for him to actually put PCA into the lineup.
PCAs offense is fine, minus the strike out rate and their offense isn’t that big of a concern. Sure they got shut down by the D-Backs but for the most part the offense is fine. Mervis isn’t the answer at first base right now. PCA is the right call if Ross uses him properly. Now DFA Wisdom
If you remember, Mervis while up, batted 8th with no protection. Ross did not put him in a position to succeed.
Ross did not play Canario.
Ross did not play Velasquez.
Will PCA even get a chance?
This call up is NOT about getting PCA at bats—it’s about his defense and baserunning in a pennant race. It’s probably not a coincidence that the call up is to Colorado….I’m sure it’s not.
And for those complaining about Canario, please stop. This is not September 2012 or 2013. Consider his lack of at bats a great thing—this means they are playing very meaningful games and Suzuki and Happ are better options. I’m sure if Canario had a start or two in place of these guys there would be the argument the other way.
I’m usually aboard with your thoughts Mike, but I feel differently this time. Getting Canario ABs – would not have been a bad thing. Morel and Tauchman were struggling – and for that matter, Candelario was also not doing anything recently either. And with Madrigal in the lineup ( no offense to Madrigal), the lineup needed to get a boost from somewhere.
Starting Canario or recalling Mervis and playing either as DH was worth the gamble every bit as much as calling up PCA at this time.
The Cubs are going to have to make some interesting 40 man decisions soon. With PCA coming up and Burdi and Hughes having to come off the 60 day when their rehab time runs out. The likeliest candidates to go IMO would be Jared Young, Anthony Kay and Wisdom. But then Belli would be the only 1B unless they promote Mervis but then they’d have to send someone down which would be interesting nonetheless. That would leave Madrigal and Morel only to play 3B if it’s Mastro, Until Candy is healthy anyway. Stay tuned. My other personal 40 man drop would be Smyly, But I doubt that happens.
Dog–certainly not arguing against that thought at all—just going the half full route being a fan for many, many years that if guys are coming up from the minors to get at bats in September that means it’s been a bad season.
I certainly DO believe that Canario can absolutely replicate the Morel/Wisdom twin outfit as a DH—just can’t see him playing either of the corners ahead of Happ or Suzuki.
PCA will get more at bats than Canario just by being inserted for defense on most evenings with the chance of a spot coming up in the last couple of innings.
Uncle—stop with the Morel at third base stuff….please. He cannot play the field anywhere.
And for that matter—I don’t even want him to be on third base as a runner. The last THREE times he’s been there, he’s made baserunning blunders.
The lineout against the Royals 95% of the time would have been an out any way–but he broke the wrong way.
The other two were just his brain locking and taking a second to register what to do.
Yesterday’s mistake was something an 11 year old travel kid would get benched for—totally inexcusable.
Below, I’ve thrown Brennan Davis into the mix of potential DFA candidates.
I’m guessing that if Fulmer/Stroman combo is coming back we won’t see either Burdi or Hughes.
True. I would even say Davis has fallen behind Perlaza in the OF heirarchy. I doubt Perlaza ever gets a chance with the Cubs which is unfortunate to me. Cubs are going to have to either make some Minor League deals this off season or offer up some guys to rule 5. I’m just saying if Candy is hurt and you send down Mastro the only other option is Morel at 3rd realistically. I’m not saying it’s a great idea, but it would be the only idea. Nicky Two Crow Hop step is actually getting it done to my surprise. But if you say Davis is always hurt how do you put all your faith in Madrigal? It’s a tad hypocritical, IMO. I don’t know which is more brittle, Madrigals hammy or Davis’ back. I don’t want the season riding on it. I hope Candy’s isn’t that bad.
As for Stroman, Fullmer, Hughes and Burdi it doesn’t matter who is actually on the roster. They still have to be put on the 40 man because right now they don’t count. You only get so much rehab time before they have to be added and I think they’re close. Some spicy DFA’s are coming I think. On a side note I’m really looking forward to seeing Wicks toss in Coors. Should be interesting.
Uncle–you are proving my point—Burdi for sure isn’t coming back to the 40 man—Stroman and Fulmer ARE on the 40 man so it that’s irrelevant—and if Hughes does come back it’s simply Anthony Kay getting DFAd.
When Stro and Fulmer come back to the 28 man, Wesneski is a sure thing and Palencia has options left. I can see an chance of Boxberger gone ahead of Palencia.
At clownMike- hey you remember calling me delusional a couple months ago when I said PCA would be up by the end of the year? And you’re the guy who doesn’t want Hendricks in the playoff rotation. Lolololol
Also, Wisdom is a lock for now on the roster because he can even play some first base. Morel should never touch a fielding glove again unless it’s as a last resort injury replacement.
I actually do remember but seeing as I have no basic idea why there is a clock rule and various ways around it I’ll admit to being dumb about baseballs rules. I don’t remember either whether it was before or after the Cubs made their youth push and Playoff run but I’ll give you props for getting it right. Kudos
They’ve got to give Boxberger a shot. He may flop but Palencia is unreliably great or can’t find the plate at all. He ain’t the answer.
thanks mets
Why would they promote PCA? They promoted Canario on September 1 and since then he’s gotten ONE plate appearance.
Canario didn’t make any sense when he was called up. Happ, Bellinger and Suzuki aren’t going to lose playing time to Canario, maybe Ross could have DH’d him some against lefties.
PCA does make since since Candy is going to miss time and our first base options suck outside of moving Bellinger there to cover down.
Tauchman has been seriously slumping and has been playing nearly every day. There were opportunities for Canario. My assumption is that Ross was saving him for games that weren’t other playoff teams.
give me the list of great baseball players with two last names.
All started with the goat reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith
when Isiah Kiner-Falefa first visited Seattle, he got his picture taken with The Hyphen. RRS is a legend in the hyphenated world. I’m sure PCA is marking his calendar now.
Five years ago Isiah Kiner-Falefa was expected to catch Austin Bibens-Dirkx
Or do you mean like Jackson Stephens, Rogers Hornsby, or Wonderful Monds
What sort of Real Man is hyphenated??!! Sheesh.
As long as it doesn’t impact his Arbitration status PCA is a decent call up. I guess this means Candelario’s back is worse than they thought. He’ll probably go on the 10 day. Eventually someone will have to go. There are plenty of possibilities but Mastrobuoni probably stays unless they really are dumb enough to keep Wisdom around. Looks Belli is playing 1B for the rest of the regular season anyway. Will be Easier on his legs anyway. I guess Tauchman finally came back to Earth. If it doesn’t impact his status why don’t they do this with other prospects? Never understood the whole clock thing anyway.
Wow, the day is actually here for Cubs fans. I haven’t heard a CF get this much hype in a while. Let’s see. The Brewers aren’t far off.
Not since Corey Patterson or Felix Pie.
Cubs hope to catch lightning in a bottle. Tauchman hasn’t been hitting lately so why not take a chance on PCA?
His floor is basically what Tauchman has been giving, he’s struggling at the dish. Even better cuz he’s gold glove caliber.
Probably a good thing he starts on the road. The way he plays OF the most important lesson he needs to learn is Bricks are hard. I don’t want his call up to end with a Wyle E Coyote moment.
Cubs brain trust took major heat for breaking up the Baez, Bryant and Rizzo core. Always better to pull the trigger too early than too late.
They also took heat for paying the remainder of Baez and Rizzo contracts those last two months. Hmmm…by paying the freight, the prospects were upgraded to PCA and Kevin Alcantara.
As much as they get blasted, the Ricketts do spend a ton of money that goes unappreciated.
Considering what the Tribune did as owners, the Rickets are a godsend.
To all the jokers who defended the Cubs not trading Willson Contreras last year: This is why you trade your rentals when you are out of the race, even if they are popular with the fans. While it is true that prospects aren’t guaranteed to pan out, neither are QO comp picks.
They tried, the deal with HOU got axed.
So trade him for something else.
Jaxon Wiggins a fine replacement for Contreras. He’s a P with a decent 4 pitch mix who the Cubs can bring along slowly because he’s just a year removed from TJ. The Cubs are just stockpiling arms and they already have a plethora of C prospects. Urquidy is having a bad year anyway so good riddance to him and Contreras. The Cardinals gave him one of the dumbest contracts I’ve ever seen.
They could have done better than Wiggins for Contreras.
Astros offered Jose Urquidy. And they don’t do that if other teams aren’t offering comparable returns. Jaxon Wiggins is only ranked #24 in the Cubs’ farm system.
And then they reneged. You really are dense . This really must be your only point to try and make. And it’s failed for 2 years. There’s a tree in my front yard that I could explain it to that would get it.
Like I said, the Astros wouldn’t have offered that if there weren’t similar returns already on the table.
Show me on the doll where Jed touched you
I vaguely remember you saying if the Cubs had taken what they could get for Contreras the Yankees wouldn’t have traded Hunter Cervenka for Scott Effross drasco.
No you definitely do not because I never said that. I know this because I don’t know who hunter cervenka is, I also know we got Hayden Wesneski for Effross and I was and am super happy about that.
My bad on mixing up the name of the prospect in the Effross trade but I found what you said…
“One, because the qualifying offer gives the cubs leverage as it will remove some potential suitors from the picture.
Two, as cubs fans saw with Lester, Lester wanted to be a life king Red Sox until they traded him. Then Lester held a grudge and decided to give the cubs a chance.
Three, as some have said “taking what you can get” would have weakened hoyers position in future trades and when it comes to a guy you can at least get some return on if he leaves “qualifying offer” then do not take that chance.”
Wrong on all counts.
The Cubs didn’t want to re-sign Contreras and clearly it was the right choice. Cubs didn’t develop any pitching with Contreras as the primary back stop, now the Cubs have a closer in Alzolay, an Ace in Steele, Wicks looks remarkable and after in Assad looks like a back of the rotation starter. Also, Amaya looks really good behind the dish.
What you “found” made no mention of Effross or Wesneski. Also, there is zero proof that I was “wrong on all accounts” or do you not know what “all accounts” mean? Did the Cubs saddle Contreras with a QO, yes. So I was correct. The only thing I could have been incorrect on was thinking the Cubs possibly could have wanted him back. Given the fact Cubs pitching have been carrying them to a likely playoff spot and Cardinals pitching was the main reason they’ve been awful, I’m glad I was wrong. Of course, I never thought the Cubs would have viewed Contreras as the primary catcher but the DH with spot catching someone like Smyly.
It’s also pretty sad you dug through some posts that are a year old, and that was the best you came up with.
Show me on the doll where I touched you
The QO didn’t give the Cubs any leverage in signing Contreras and Jaxon Wiggins isn’t even close to as valuable as Jose Urquidy.
Lester would have signed with the Cubs even if the Red Sox hadn’t traded him.
“Taking what you can get” doesn’t weaken any position in future trades.
You were wrong about those things. I can accept that I was wrong that you were the one that said the Yankees wouldn’t have traded Wesneski for Effross if the Cubs had taken what they could get for Contreras. That was “northsidecrossrifles.”
A.) we don’t know what Jaxon will turn into, so you don’t know. He does have a higher upside than Urquidy and what’s your point with that anyway? Cubs had a deal in place to get him, Astros owner wouldn’t sign off. You have no fing clue what the “next best” offer was.
B.) again, you don’t know if Lester would have signed with the Cubs.
C.) yes it does.
You’re wrong and your lawyering skills are god awful.
Lastly, and this is wasting my time because you have your opinions no matter how illogical they are, Lester said one of the reasons he didn’t re-sign with the Red Sox was because of the trade. Henry admitted to screwing up negotiations with Lester and Betts said the Lester situation made him not want to extend with the Red Sox. The Cubs held onto Contreras until the end of the season, the off-season they were able to extend Happ and Hoerner. Did keeping Conteras matter to Ian or Nico, I don’t know but the fact is they both extended.
A) Higher upside but also no floor. In 1,000 simulations Urquidy ends up having the better career in more than 500 of them. I may not know what the next best offer was but the Astros only had to outbid the next highest bidder by $1 so it’s reasonable to assume there were similar offers out there.
B) The Cubs offered him $20m more than the Red Sox and had his buddy Theo Epstein. He would have signed with the Cubs with or without the trade.
C) No it doesn’t. All 30 GM’s already understand that non-contenders have no leverage with pending FA’s. The problem is that non-contender has 28 other teams to trade that player to. If you won’t pay up, someone else will. Then you have to explain to your fanbase why you let that player slip through your fingers. And I doubt whether they will accept “But they accepted a crap return for another player a couple weeks prior so they HAD to accept our crap return for this player” as an explanation.
You got a link to Lester and Betts saying these things? No? Then it’s nothing but hearsay. I do remember Lester being “offended” by the Red Sox’s lowball extension offer prior to the 2014 season but that would have been the case with or without trading him.
Nico and Ian extended after Contreras left, not before he left. So your argument makes no sense at all.
Drascoo- You’re definitely wasting your time. You could talk to rocks and get a better response.
And the scouting report on Wiggins was that if he didn’t have to get the TJ surgery, He would of been a high first round pick. But I wouldn’t tell him or expect him to get it.
High first round picks that DIDN’T need TJ bust all the time my guy.
As does the majority of prospects “my guy”, I hope you regularly was your feet since you’re constantly sticking them in your mouth
The question is which one is more LIKELY to succeed? I’m rooting for Jaxon but…
The PCA era has officially begun! The Cubs will still need to find their future 3B this offseason with no top prospects at the hot corner.
Matt Shaw. All they have to do is look down. Shaw would already be at AAA if Tennessee wasn’t likely going to the Playoffs.
Perhaps. Matt Shaw has hit great since being selected as the Cubs top draft pick in July. That said, he’s only had 33 games of professional experience with only 10 of those being at AA. He’s also only started two of those games at 3B. His weakest tool is a 45 grade arm which suggests 2B at the MLB level over his natural SS position or at the hot corner. His bat looks like it will play just fine at 3B if he continues to rake in the minors.
If Madrigal can play 3rd my 85 year old mother can. And she’s LH. Or maybe even Hoerner moves again to 3rd. After watching Nicky Two Crow Hop Step play there I’m sure Shaw could anyway.
If 3B was such an easy position to play why is Nick Madrigal starting over the likes of Jeimer Candelario, Christopher Morel and Patrick Wisdom? That trio certainly profiles better at the hot corner with their bats than Nicky Two Strike does.
Hopefully Matt Shaw will be the Cubs long term answer at 3B. The front office also figures to explore other options with trades this offseason or kick the tires on 30-year old free agent Matt Chapman. If the brass feels confident in Shaw sooner rather than later they could also explore a FA like Justin Turner as a stopgap for 2024.
Uncle, I continue to shake my head when watching Madrigal throw like a QB scrambling from the pocket, but am amazed that he is 4th in baseball in outs above average despite playing far less games than almost everybody there.
And he’s far ahead of Ryan McMahon and Nolan Arenado.
i can’t explain it—it doesn’t pass the eye test—but somehow it’s working.
Believe me—your 85 year old mother can’t play 3rd.
Also, there is a huge reason those guys like Jed have their jobs—they are able to keep emotion out of their thought process and decision making.
I would have launched Madrigal long ago as I await the injury while he’s running or contend that he needs to hit about .350 to be a valuable offensive player. Jed stuck with him and he’s been pretty darn important in a lot of games since he’s come back from Iowa.
You and me both mike. Like I said, He’s getting it done. No idea how. But I have to eat crow until He doesn’t get it done I guess. If it was me he wouldn’t be in my long range plans, But I guess time will tell. It should be another interesting off season to see what the Cubs plan is.
What’s funny is Madrigals arm has graded better this season than Candys and Candelarios arm was graded as a 60 as a prospect.
I love Madrigal but he’s proving to be a bench piece, much like I said in the off-season, he’s Tommy LaStella for the Cubs but with better defense.
His arm has graded average this season at 85 mph while his range has been outstanding. He is/would be a great situational hitter
Case in point, runner on third with less than two out this year, he’s had 11 opportunities, driving in 9! You can almost put it in the bank.
You mean Future MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong.
And his mother was the mom in “Little Big League. “
11:00 am and I haven’t seen the corresponding move yet.
Let’s play the guessing game:
If the Candelario injury is him NOT being able to play in Colorado—my guess would be DFA Jared Young or Brennan Davis—-promote PCA,option Canario.. Before you go crazy on Davis—he can’t stay healthy and at the very least he is far behind Happ, Suzuki, PCA, Caissie, and Alcantara on the outfield depth list.
If Candelario CAN play in Colorado—my guess/wish is DFA Wisdom—promote PCA.
If Candelario can’t play Wisdom has to stay as he can stand at first base and someone other than Bellinger can be there.
Lol Mets,
They finally drafted a great player in PCA and they then donate him to the Cubs for a rental in Javy Baez. I have watched PCA in ST with the Mets years ago, and I am convinced he will be a very good ballplayer. Best of luck PCA.
I hate to break the news to you but the Mets have actually drafted several great players, that have produced at the ml level and have some really good prospects.
When’s the last time the Cubs drafted that turned into a Pete Alonzo?
Much of the Cubs 2016 championship core were draft picks. That included Kris Bryant who was the 2015 Rookie of the Year and 2016 NL MVP winner. The Mets last appeared in a World Series back in 2015 and haven’t won a championship since 1986. Just saying…
The “Championship Core” consisted of TWO players the Cubs drafted. TWO. Schwarber was not a “core” player that year, at all.
Thank you Drascoo—-and Javy was picked by Hendry. KB was the only Theo draft pick that contributed during that regular season. I believe that Almora had less than 150 PA that year.
Of course Schwarber’s injury is part of the calculus here—he had more at bats in the World Series than the season,
The biggest fallacy of 2016 is that the Cubs used “tanking” to build that team.
That championship was a combination of about dozen great trades and free agent signings—and Kris Bryant falling to the Cubs at #2.
And congratulations on the Cubs for not swinging and missing on the second over all pick, seriously, the Astros bombed their pick and the Rockies nabbed Gray right after the Cubs. That draft was awful outside of Judge and Bryant’s beginning of his career.
Define “core”. I’ve got 6 of the Cubs 14 position players who were on their 2016 World Series roster as exclusively home grown. Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora were all draft picks. Willson Contreras and Jorge Soler were international free agent signings by the Cubs.
I’m not considering Schwarber nor Almora as core of 2016. Schwarber played TWO games and Almora had 115 at bats during the season.
The Core: Rizzo, Javy, Russell, KB, Fowler, Zobrist, Heyward.
The guys you mentioned became the core of 17-18-19 but not 16. Schwarber definitely would have been part of 16 without blowing out the knee.
Schwarber was instrumental in road games as he was able to DH in the Series. Almora had one at bat.
I’ll respect your opinion but it’s an absolute lie to think the Cubs won the World Series because of their drafting between 2012 and 2016.
What you are saying is like Matt Szczur was part of the corre even though he wasn’t on the roster — but because a bunch of guys actually used his bat.
And part of the core—none of the starting pitchers were “homegrown”: Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks (although you can argue that one), Lackey, Hammel
Define “much”.
Schwarber doesn’t count, because he played in 2 regular season games.
Contreras and Soler both were international signings and you said “drafted”. Neither even played in half the Cubs regular season games.
Almora also doesn’t count because he started in something like 20 games.
On the World Series roster, exactly zero pitchers, starters or relievers were either drafted or signed as international free agents. Not one.
Even on this current roster, the Cubs have two regular position players that were drafted by the organization, both first rounders. I’m not complaining, the organization is well rounded but when people bash other organizations draft success, they should look in the mirror. We have drafted one superstar, Bryant, and he was the second over all pick. We have also drafted several good everyday players in the first round which is a higher rate of success than most organizations. We also do a really good job scouting other organizations. I’m glad we finally have some pitching working out for us. Steele has been a godsend.
mike127 & drasco036
All this bantering started with the notion that somehow the Mets deserve some measure of credit for drafting PCA who may or may not develop into an impact player like Pete Alonzo.
You make it appear as if the Cubs won the 2016 championship with a band of mercenaries. The fact is much or even the majority of their positional postseason roster was either drafted, signed or had substantial development that can be attributed to the Cubs system. This includes Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell. Another exclusive home grown talent up through 2015 was Starlin Castro who was traded ahead of the 2016 season which allowed the Cubs to sign FA Ben Zobrist with Baez and Russell becoming the Cubs new DP combo.
If kudos are extended to a team for simpling drafting the PCA’s of MLB then perhaps the Cubs should get accolades for eventual impact players like Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu. Should the White Sox get bonus points for signing international FA Fernando Tatis Jr. despite the fact he never played a single professional game for them?
We all know the Cubs had less success when it came to drafting and signing amateur international pitching talent under Theo Epstein’s watch. That said, the team was still instrumental in doing most of the developmental work with Kyle Hendricks to say nothing of the job that pitching coach Chris Bosio did at the MLB level with trade acquisition arms such as Jake Arrieta, Pedro Strop, Carl Edwards Jr. and Justin Grimm. Hector Rondon, who was on the 2016 WS roster and the Cubs closer in 2015, was plucked from the Indians system as a 2012 Rule 5 Draft pick.
Actually it didn’t. It began because someone popped off at the mouth regarding the Mets draft choices and it compounded because you incorrectly spoke about the Cubs “DRAFTING much of the core”.
I don’t think the Mets deserve any credit for drafting PCA or any criticism for trading him.
Sorry to break it to you but I can recall in disbelief watching the Mets draft Dom Smith ahead of Aaron Judge who I wanted and Gavin Cecchini in front of Corey Seager. How is that possible if you have watched these ballplayers.
PCA they finally got it right and pissed him away. LOL
You can quite literally say that about every single team. Every team passed on Judge until the compensation round. The Yankees even passed on him for Eric Jagielo
Dom Smith & Gavin Cecchini you have to be kidding right?
I don’t have my Time Machine charged so i cannot go back and look at what scouting and draft “experts” were reporting at the time of the draft.
I remember posting with others on the MLB Mets message Board at the time begging for Aaron Judge and the derision when Gavin Cecchini was picked. Mets scouts were commenting that they drafted Cecchini because they didn’t think Corey Seager would stick at SS. LMAO now
1.12 New York Mets: Gavin Cecchini, SS, Barbe HS (La.)
Grade: A-
In my opinion, he’s the best shortstop in the 2012 draft class after Correa, and this is a great pick for the Mets. Their system is devoid of a shortstop with a high-ceiling, and Cecchini solves this problem. One of the best hit tools in the entire draft class with plus speed
That’s cool.. good for you. You and those other fans deserve a cookie.
Kyle schwartburg
Who is the author to say what the Cubs think of his K rate? Maybe they like it. Maybe they wish he struckout more often.
so presumptuous
David Ross better not give him the same treatment he’s been giving Canario have him ride the pine for a week and a half and only give him 1 AB. It would be a waste of a call up if he’s on the bench for the last 3 weeks and get zero starts and only 2-4 AB.
You never know what the kid(Canario and PCA can do unless you play them. They could be the spark they needed. Losing 3 of 4 to the DBacks is unacceptable. That’s unfortunately how the C7bs offense has always been. They play down to the competition. Getting shutout by Zac Gallen is fine but then other 2 losses were not good.
All these long hyphenated names seem to be a thing. Doesn’t anyone get married anymore ?
Ya I know it’s 2023 🙂
An OF of Nimmo, Kelenic, PCA would’ve been nice…the lack of vision ruined it.
Sounds like PCA won’t be activated until tomorrow (Tuesday). Been watching for a corresponding move most of the day and this explains why we haven’t seen one yet.
Iowa is off today so there is some sense on getting him to Colorado today (if not last night).
Could be buying time to see how Candelario progresses before making the roster decision. The fact that nothing has been done yet (245 Monday) could be encouraging news on Candy.
Calling up a top prospect in the middle of a playoff push is always very exciting
I think the development of PCA over the past year is one of the reasons the Mets didn’t want to trade for Contreras at the deadline last year.
I actually wouldn’t of minded that the Mets traded PCA if they held a playoff spot. They were clearly not going to make the playoffs and made a last ditch effort by trading for Baez. That was a complete waste of a prospect. If say, last year the Mets traded PCA for Luis Castillo, I would have been completely fine with that because it was clearly the year to go for it all. Steve Cohen has no clue how to run a team
“I actually wouldn’t of minded that the Mets traded PCA if they held a playoff spot”
Mets traded for Javy July 30th when they held a 5 game lead in the division. By your own admission, it’s time to get over it.
@drascoo36 the problem is their team was awful that year and the Braves were clearly getting hot. They were throwing out lineups that consisted of James McCann batting third, Cameron Mayben batting fourth, Billy McKinney batting leadoff, etc. Villar was the everyday 3rd baseman. The team was obviously not a contender that year. Last year was the year to go for it
Throwing out line ups:
McKinney batted lead off twice
McCann batted 3rd in 11 games
Maybin never batted 4th
Braves were getting hot but the Mets had a 5 game lead. They had to go for it and you are simply using hindsight to say they were not a very good team. They were far from awful, they were a first place time with a commanding lead at the deadline, they held first place until August 13th, and then the wheels fell off.
Better Pete Crow Armstrong than Billy Bob Thornton
Not, body type but Pete Crow Armstrong, reminds me so, much of Josh Hamilton… Anybody,agree ???