PHILADELPHIA — Pete Crow-Armstrong had plenty of company Monday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, where baseball’s All-Stars met the media a day before the Midsummer Classic.
The last National Leaguer to emerge from the clubhouse and onto the field for the long walk to the concourse behind center field known as Ashburn Alley, Crow-Armstrong paused for a warm embrace from Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager who will lead the Cubs centerfielder and the NL squad for the second year in a row. Eventually, Crow-Armstrong arrived at his assigned interview table, at one end of a double-sided row of three dozen of them, and found a thick scrum of reporters waiting eagerly for him.
No small deal, this PCA fellow. A year ago, he was the hottest first-time All-Star on the planet. Now, having made good on a $115 million contract extension with a balls-of-fire last six weeks of the first half as the Cubs got cooking again, he’s an MVP candidate with the highest position-player WAR in the majors and — let’s just tell it like it is — the profile and presence of a superstar.
“He’s a real one. He really is,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, a member of Robert’s NL staff, said admiringly.
But Crow-Armstrong was all by his lonesome here in another sense. Playing for a winning team with a 54-42 record that puts it in the driver’s seat for at least a wild-card berth, he’s nevertheless the only All-Star representing the big-spending, mega-market Cubs. And the truth is that none of Crow-Armstrong’s fellow Cubs position players came close to meriting a spot.
Fewer than 10 big-league teams have the required minimum of one All-Star this year. What does it say about the Cubs that they’re one of them?
“First of all, I think if [pitcher] Ben Brown stayed healthy, he’d be here with me,” Crow-Armstrong said. “But I play with those guys every day, and I share a clubhouse with them for hours on end. My view of them is my view of them: I love everybody that I’ve played with this year. …
“I have a team that’s built to play in the playoffs even with all the injuries and the lack of some of our starting pitching. If we get guys coming back in the second half, we’re going to be just fine. But my view of my teammates is my view, and I love my teammates.”
They — along with players from all over the league — recognize that Crow-Armstrong has ascended to a different level. The home runs (15 of them in the last 37 games alone) and OPS (1.259 over that same period) are gaudy, and the base running and defense flashy, but look no further than PCA’s exploding on-base percentage to understand how much better he is than before. His OBP has gone from .286 in 2024 and .287 in 2025 to .386 this season, and nearly .500 since his tear began in late May.
Before the season, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told Crow-Armstrong the team needed him on base more often. This — superstardom — is what that looks like.
“Look at the components of being a superstar,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton, who has faced Crow-Armstrong often as a former Pirates manager. “No. 1, you’ve got to be really talented, which PCA is. No. 2, you’ve got to be able to impact the game in every facets, which he does. And then No. 3, the best superstars have personality, and nobody has more of that than him. He’s on a very short list.”
Crow-Armstrong has the contract and the growing stature. He’s certainly the best player on the Cubs and has become, whether he wants to admit it or not, the face of the team. Given he’s signed through 2032, that isn’t about to change.
The list of Cubs who’ve struggled to hit after inking major contracts — including nine-figure guys Jason Heyward, Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman — is not insignificant. So far, Crow-Armstrong can’t be characterized that way, not even close.
It’s the kind of development that might make a superstar feel more responsibility for how much success his team — emphasis on “his” — has and how far it goes.
“I think anybody that is lucky enough to sign a deal, you find yourself in a situation of some more responsibility to uphold not only the name of the organization,” he said. “But I’ve had some moments where I’ve had to understand how to represent my team better this year. I’ve had really good learning experiences pertaining to people like you giving me that title. ‘My team’ or not, I got Nico Hoerner with me, I got Dansby Swanson, we got Breggy. I still got vets I look up to and choose to look up to.
“I think that I’m slowly developing into a leader at my own pace, and I think that’s working for us right now. But extension or not, being a face or anything or not, I take pride in what happens to us every year. That became more obvious to me after we made the playoffs and got a little taste of that last year.”