Cubs Have 'A Bona Fide Superstar' Emerging This Season As Team's Early MVP

When the Chicago Cubs acquired right fielder Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros over the offseason, they were excited about the MVP-level boost their lineup was going to receive.

A three-time All-Star, he was the exact kind of impact bat the team was looking for to anchor their lineup after the offense fell short of expectations in 2024 since he is the kind of player everyone else would feed off of.

Tucker has lived up to the billing, performing at a high level throughout the campaign.

He currently has a .280/.382/.531 slash line with 12 home runs, nine doubles, four triples, 39 RBI and 15 stolen bases without being caught once.

His production has been outstanding, but he wasn’t who Johnny Flores Jr. of The Athletic (subscription required) selected as the team’s MVP thus far in 2025.

That distinction would go to his fellow outfielder, Pete Crow-Armstrong, who is emerging as a dynamic two-way force this year.

Pete Crow-Armstrong Has Been Cubs MVP Thus Far

“There are simply not enough words (at least words that I’m allotted to write) about how good PCA has been ... Budding MVP might be too kind for Crow-Armstrong. We’re watching a bona fide superstar rise before our very eyes,” Flores wrote.

The Cubs knew that Crow-Armstrong would be a useful player based on his speed and defensive ability alone. That was a strong baseline for an everyday player, making things happen on the basepaths and saving runs with regularity.

He has produced in both areas, stealing 14 bases to this point and being in the mix as the best defender in baseball. His +9 Fielding Run Value is in the 100th percentile and his Outs Above Average of +9 is in the 99th percentile.

What was going to determine how big of a star he became was if he could figure things out consistently at the plate.

Thus far, he has surpassed even the boldest of predictions about how productive he would be offensively.

Crow-Armstrong has a .280/.310/.565 slash line with 14 home runs, 13 doubles, six triples and 48 RBI. The home runs and RBI are already career-highs, and his doubles tie what he recorded in 2024.

That has culminated in an impressive 145 OPS+ and NL-high 2.9 bWAR, putting him in the NL MVP Mix.

Chicago should be thanking the New York Mets every day for including Crow-Armstrong in the trade package in 2021 to rent Javier Baez before he departed in free agency, signing a deal with the Detroit Tigers, in what could be one of the most lopsided trades in recent MLB history.

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