Chicago Cubs’ young star will earn ridiculous bonus money

Now, “PCA” can count on some cold, hard cash to go along with his accolades.

According to an interim report recently issued to teams ahead of the All-Star break, Crow-Armstrong is on pace to get a bonus of $1,091,102 from this season’s performance-based $50 million pre-arbitration MLB bonus pool– the largest individual share of the bonus pool to be issued, based on his NL-leading bWAR of 5.6.

Per ESPN:

“A total of 100 players will receive the payments, established as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement and aimed to get more money to players without sufficient service time for salary arbitration eligibility. The cutoff for 2025 was 2 years, 132 days of major league service…Players who signed as foreign professionals are excluded.

As part of the labor agreement, a management-union committee was established that determined the WAR formula used to allocate the bonuses after awards. (A player may receive only one award bonus per year, the highest one he is eligible for.)…”

Money in the pool

Also, per ESPN:

“A player earns $2.5 million for winning an MVP or Cy Young award, $1.75 million for finishing second, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth or fifth or for making the All-MLB first team. A player can get $750,000 for winning Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second or for making the All-MLB second team, $350,000 for third in the rookie race, $250,000 for fourth or $150,000 for fifth.”

Last year, Crow-Armstrong earned a $342,128 bonus from the same pool. The sophomore currently makes a base salary of $771,000.

“I was aware of it after last year, but I have no clue of the numbers,” Crow-Armstrong said of the bonus pool allotment. “I haven’t looked at it one time.”

Chicago Cubs and PCA, forever?

His actual salary, of course, will expand greatly when he becomes eligible for arbitration and it will absolutely explode when the young star is eligible for free agency. Cubs efforts to sign him to an extension before that explosion down the road have not been successful, but PCA insists that his goal is to remain a Cub throughout his career.

“That’s the goal,” Crow-Armstrong said in a recent interview, referring to his desire to stay in Chicago. “I think what’s important to me is being somewhere I feel convicted in winning at. And then obviously where I feel comfortable playing and living for a long period of time…

I absolutely think that Chicago is a place to do that for me. I already take so much pride in being a Cub, and what comes with that. Any way that we can get me here for a while, I think, would be ideal…

“And until then, I’m just focusing on this year. I would take a World Series this year over everything else, if I’m being honest. I see myself doing that here for years to come.”