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Cubs All-Star Joins Rare 6-Player List After Historically Brutal Month At The Plate

Originally posted on Chicago Cubs on SI
By Kenneth Teape | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 8:16 PM ET

It wasn’t too long ago that the Chicago Cubs had two players who looked like they would be in the running for the National League MVP award.

Earlier in the summer, their All-Stat duo of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker was performing at elite levels across the board. Both were putting on impressive displays of power and speed at the plate, with Crow-Armstrong adding in the best defense in the MLB, regardless of position. The rest of the team was feeding off of that, getting out to an early lead in the NL Central.

Then, the second half began and both players were nowhere to be found. It was revealed that Tucker had been dealing with a hairline fracture in his hand that derailed his performance. He has begun heating up again, getting on track and buoying the team’s success.

Unfortunately for the Cubs, when Tucker was going through his struggles, Crow-Armstrong also saw his production plummet. Unlike his teammate, the talented center fielder has yet to get back on track. That resulted in him having a historically poor performance at the plate in August.

Pete Crow-Armstrong Had Brutal Month of August for Cubs

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As shared by nugget chef on x, entering 2025, in the Wild Card Era, there had been only six players who received at least 100 plate appearances who produced an OPS of .450 or worse. That list now includes even names, with Crow-Armstrong joining.

He had a .446 OPS in 112 plate appearances.

OPS Below .450 in August
Wild Card Era -- Min. 100 PA

1997 Gary Disarcina
1999 Brian Hunter
2002 Omar Vizquel
2002 Paul Lo Duca
2014 Curtis Granderson
2021 Harrison Bader
2025 Pete Crow-Armstrong
— nugget chef (@jayhaykid) September 1, 2025

Harrison Bader in 2021 with the St. Louis Cardinals was the most recent player to accomplish the abysmal feat. The first player to do so was Gary Disarcina in 1997. Between those two were Brian Hunter in 1999, Omar Vizquel in 2002, Paul Lo Duca in 2002 and Curtis Granderson in 2014.

Overall, Crow-Armstrong has a .241/.291/.495 slash line with 28 home runs and 83 RBI. He has scored 81 runs and stolen 31 bases. That kind of stat sheet stuffing is incredibly impressive, but the young star is trending toward one of the most disappointing 30/30 campaigns in MLB history.

In August, he had a -0.3 fWAR, which is 87th in the NL amongst positional players. It was the first month this season he didn’t record at least a 1.0 fWAR. In March/April, May, June and July his fWAR number was never below 14th place among NL hitters.

Pete Crow-Armstrong NL batter fWAR ranks by month this season:

March/April ----- 1.6 (T-4th)
May ------------- 1.4 (T-3rd)
June ------------- 1.0 (T-14th)
July -------------- 1.5 (3rd)
August ---------- -0.3 (87th)
— nugget chef (@jayhaykid) August 31, 2025

Tucker received a lot of attention for how much he struggled during the summer, but his performance wasn’t nearly as poor as his teammate’s. Crow-Armstrong went from one of the most prolific hitters in baseball to the worst in August. If Chicago is going to make any noise down the stretch, they need him getting back on track.

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This article first appeared on Chicago Cubs on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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