Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong Reveals Next Career Step

Pete Crow-Armstrong said the mental side of baseball is the part of the game he struggles with most, and the piece he believes can take him to another level.

The Chicago Cubs center fielder made the comments in a conversation with Cam Johnson on The Old Man and the Three podcast. The episode was released Feb. 24, a month before Opening Day.

“That’s probably the last piece to the puzzle for me,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I know my swing is always going to, I could be Aaron Judge, and his swing doesn’t always feel great. So the mental part really feels like the last thing that can take me to another level.”

Crow-Armstrong was coming off a 2025 season in which he hit 31 home runs and stole 35 bases in 157 games. He made his first All-Star team and won a Gold Glove.

It did not finish cleanly. Amid a second-half slump that September, Cubs manager Craig Counsell sat him for consecutive games to give him what Counsell called a physical and mental break, according to MLB.com.

What drives him day to day is something Crow-Armstrong said he has not settled.

“That’s what I’m still figuring out,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don’t really know yet. I’ve done the therapy thing. I’ve talked to mental-skills people. But there’s definitely always something that drives you. I love playing baseball, and I love how difficult the sport is. There’s something new about it every day.”

“You’re constantly learning,” Crow-Armstrong continued. “You’re making do with what you’ve got that day, and I think that’s super special.”

“Honestly, the days you wake up feeling like death are probably my favorite days, because you’re like, ‘How are you going to make this work today?'” Crow-Armstrong added. “But I’m not really the one to talk about the mental side of things just yet, because I struggle with that the most. So I just try to take little bits and pieces from dudes I admire, mostly guys on my team.”

Nico Hoerner, a Gold Glove second baseman, finalized a six-year, $141 million extension with the Cubs on March 29.

“Last year, Justin Turner was a big one, just because he has so many years of experience,” Crow-Armstrong explained. “But Nico Hoerner is probably somebody whose mindset I admire the most. He talked to me about being kind to yourself and being emotionally aware, because the season is so long. You forget how you’re actually feeling sometimes when everything is about baseball.”

“He’s like your model baseball player,” Crow-Armstrong continued. “If I had kids, I’d be like, ‘Watch how he runs to first base and then comes back to the dugout.’ He’s wired all the time. He lets his emotions out when the time calls for it, but other than that, he’s super stoic. So I lean on him very heavily.”

The Cubs announced Crow-Armstrong’s six-year, $115 million extension on March 26, after a season-opening loss to the Washington Nationals. With escalators, the deal can reach $133 million.

It begins in 2027 and includes a $5 million signing bonus. His salary sits at $10 million in each of the first three seasons. In 2030 it climbs to $20 million, followed by $30 million in 2031 and again in 2032.

Crow-Armstrong played all 162 games in 2026 and hit .280 with a .372 on-base percentage and a .570 slugging percentage. His 45 home runs led the National League. He added 107 RBI, 119 runs and 41 stolen bases to join the 40-40 club.

October was a different story. The Cubs went 89-73, finished 14 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and were swept by the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card Series, losing 8-0 and 4-1 at Petco Park. Crow-Armstrong went 0-for-7, and the Cubs scored one run in the series.

Should that last piece fall into place, the Cubs have the 24-year-old under contract through 2032.