{"id":379650,"date":"2025-11-15T01:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379650\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T01:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:47:10","slug":"pete-crow-armstrong-to-play-in-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379650\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Crow-Armstrong to play in World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s breakout season saw the Chicago Cubs center fielder garnered plenty of attention this year.<\/p>\n

From being voted to start for the National League in July\u2019s All-Star Game<\/a> to producing the Cubs\u2019 first 30-30 season<\/a> since Sammy Sosa, Crow-Armstrong has quickly become one of the top young players in Major League Baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His ascension has earned him a spot on the international stage: Crow-Armstrong will play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this spring. He joins the Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 Corbin Carroll and the three-time New York Yankees MVP Aaron Judge in Team USA\u2019s outfield. The honor was revealed Thursday during the league\u2019s awards ceremony in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\n

Column: Winter is coming, but the Chicago Cubs\u2019 offseason strategy is on a need-to-know basis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a finished product, he\u2019s going to continue to get better,\u201d president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week at the general manager meetings in Las Vegas<\/a>. \u201cThe season he had was incredible. I thought he was the best defender in baseball, and he had flashes of the really great offensive player. He struggled at times. That\u2019s pretty normal for a 23-year-old, so I think he\u2019ll continue to get better, and we\u2019ll continue to work with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Pete did to help us win baseball games was exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong\u2019s all-around game earned him a ninth-place finish in NL MVP voting, one of four Cubs to receive votes. His stellar defensive performance landed him his first Gold Glove Award<\/a>. Crow-Armstrong\u2019s combination of speed and power at the plate put him in rare company too. He finished with 31 home runs, 37 doubles and 35 stolen bases, a 30-30-30 campaign that only 56 MLB players have done and the lone Cubs player to accomplish the feat.<\/p>\n

As he enters his third full season in the majors in 2026, the potential surrounding Crow-Armstrong, who doesn\u2019t turn 24 until March, is still tantalizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis ability to get the ball in the air to the pole side this year was really strong, and so he has home run power, I think he\u2019ll continue to refine his approach,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the best version of Pete will look like in the coming years. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s fewer homers or not. I don\u2019t know what it looks like, but I think he\u2019ll continue to just get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best things about playing great defense is like he gets in the lineup every day \u2014 he\u2019s always going to play. He\u2019s always going to be out there because he helps us win. The more reps you get, the more at-bats you get, the more chance you have to refine your craft. And I think that\u2019s why a lot of times those young, good defenders can continue to develop offensively because their defense gets them in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 World Baseball Classic will be held March 5-17 in Miami, Houston, Tokyo and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The semifinals (March 15-16) and championship game (March 17) will take place in Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s breakout season saw the Chicago Cubs center fielder garnered plenty of attention this year. From being…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[3090,960,1271,11283,5386,1818,21891,1277,1270,182121],"class_list":{"0":"post-379650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-corbin-carroll","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-jed-hoyer","15":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong","16":"tag-sammy-sosa","17":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115551197306672319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}