The Cubs made an effort to lock up center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong during Spring Training. At the time, an MLB.com report indicated that Chicago made an offer that could have maxed out around $75MM had all the option years been exercised — though the actual guarantee would have checked in lower than that.
Last week, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that the Cubs offered a guarantee in the $60-70MM range before the season started. Crow-Armstrong obviously wasn’t persuaded by that, and his asking price has surely only increased after a monster start to the year. Most extensions are concentrated during Spring Training or within the opening two to three weeks of the regular season. Players often prefer to table discussions to avoid potential distractions during the summer months.
Heyman nevertheless wrote last week that the Cubs were making “in-season overtures” to Crow-Armstrong’s camp. He indicated the team was willing to up its offer from the spring. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer predictably didn’t comment on the team’s new price range but told Patrick Mooney of The Athletic on Tuesday that the front office is willing to keep negotiations going. “Not talking during the season, to me, that’s a player-focused thing,” Hoyer told Mooney. “I’m not playing. I’ve got time to negotiate if they want.”
While Hoyer didn’t go into detail about the current state of conversations, he spoke about the reporting from April. Hoyer stated that the sides “hadn’t talked in a couple weeks when (word of the offer) leaked out” and added that “the number that came out about that wasn’t right.” MLB.com had initially reported that the offer was in the $75MM range before correcting that that number represented the approximate maximum value, including what was presumably at least one club option year.
Crow-Armstrong is playing at a level that’d put him in the MVP conversation if he keeps it up all year. He took a .280/.310/.565 slash line across 229 plate appearances into tonight’s game. He has swiped 14 bases in 17 attempts while already establishing a new career high with 14 home runs. He’s added 13 doubles and three triples and is tied for fourth in MLB (behind Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and teammate Seiya Suzuki) with 30 extra-base hits.
That would play at any position. It’s particularly remarkable from a player whose primary asset is his glove. Crow-Armstrong has been viewed as an elite defensive center fielder throughout his professional career. His early MLB results have supported that evaluation. The 23-year-old leads all outfielders with nine Outs Above Average, according to Statcast. He tied for sixth by that metric during his 2024 rookie campaign.
There’s probably still some trepidation about Crow-Armstrong’s offensive approach. He’s among the most aggressive hitters in MLB. He has walked in fewer than 4% of his plate appearances. This season’s success has come despite a middling .310 on-base percentage. The approach was certainly an issue during his debut campaign, as he hit .237/.286/.384 last year.
Crow-Armstrong entered this season with 170 days of major league service, putting him two days shy of one full service year. He’s a lock to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player at the end of the ’26 season. He will not reach free agency for another five years after this one, however. If the sides were to negotiate a deal that goes into effect next year, he’d be in the 1-2 year service class.
As Front Office subscribers can see with MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Jackson Merrill established a new standard for players in that bracket with this spring’s $135MM deal. Merrill probably took something of a hometown discount, but he also had a higher established offensive baseline than Crow-Armstrong does. Merrill hit 24 homers with a .292/.326/.500 slash over a full season as a 21-year-old rookie. He’s also a plus center fielder, albeit not quite the caliber of defender that Crow-Armstrong is. Merrill is an aggressive hitter in his own right, but he’s had sustained offensive success essentially from the moment he reached the big leagues.
Though Crow-Armstrong may have a comparable or even slightly higher ceiling, he’s not as established. During Spring Training, the Cubs seemingly valued him in the next tier of young hitters. An offer in the $60-70MM range would have aligned with recent deals for Lawrence Butler and Ezequiel Tovar. Crow-Armstrong has clearly played himself above that group within the past couple months, but there’s a broad range between them and Merrill.