When it comes to hitting, baserunning and defense, no player in MLB came close to matching Pete Crow-Armstrong in all three this season. He received some deserved hardware for that on Thursday.
The Chicago Cubs outfielder won the 2026 National League MVP Award over finalists Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers. He is the first Cub to receive the honor since Kris Bryant in 2016.
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The vote was unanimous, with Crow-Armstrong receiving all 30 first-place votes from the BBWAA. It’s the 11th time in NL history that has happened with MVP, and the fourth consecutive year after Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023 and Ohtani in 2024 and 2025.
On the American League side, Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros won MVP unanimously after a historic season on offense. It is the third time in the past four years that both MVPs have been unanimous, joining 2023 (Ohtani and Acuña) and 2024 (Ohtani and Aaron Judge).
Before 2023, it had never happened in the history of the BBWAA MVP awards, which go back to 1931.
By the end of the season, Crow-Armstrong’s case for MVP was overwhelming. If it had to be boiled down to a single sentence, it would probably be something like “A player just posted the seventh 40-homer, 40-stolen base season in MLB history, while also delivering arguably more defensive value than any player in the league.”
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Crow-Armstrong’s 45 homers and 41 stolen bases got him into the 40-40 club populated by Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Acuña and Ohtani. He was the best hitter in the NL overall this season, leading the league in homers (45), runs (119), slugging percentage (.570), OPS (.943) and total bases (357).
On the defensive side, he won his second straight Gold Glove in center field and led all of MLB in Statcast’s Fielding Run Value at 26. Both the eye test and the advanced stats were in agreement: his glove alone was a force this season.
Not only was Crow-Armstrong the clear MVP, he also won the Hank Aaron Award as the NL’s top hitter and the Platinum Glove as the NL’s top fielder. No other player has done that since the Platinum Glove was introduced in 2011.
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Pete Crow-Armstrong ran away with MVP in the second half
As clear as the decision was by October, it took months for Crow-Armstrong to be considered the favorite. Ohtani was in pursuit of a fifth career MVP award, the most in MLB history outside of Bonds, and seemed likely to win it as late as July thanks to his immense value as both a designated hitter and starting pitcher.
Crow-Armstrong also struggled early in the year, ending May slashing 237/.325/.388 at the plate.
However, Ohtani stopped pitching in early July due to a knee issue that led to a lubricating injection over the All-Star break. As his return to the mound kept getting pushed back (all the way to 2027, eventually), the Dodgers star became just a hitter, and Crow-Armstrong more than matched him on that front, slashing 302/.397/.668 after May thanks to a midseason swing adjustment.
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Three of Ohtani’s four MVP awards have been built on his value as a two-way player. He was an elite hitter in each season, and even a limited number of good innings as a pitcher are usually more valuable than what most position players can deliver on defense. Crow-Armstrong’s glove, however, was another animal.
The comparison can be boiled down to two combinations of stats, using the Baseball Reference calculation of wins above replacement (WAR). No. 1:
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a hitter with a .275/.377/.512 slash line and 11 stolen bases in 618 plate appearances (3.2 WAR)
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a pitcher with a 1.79 ERA in 85 2/3 innings (3.2 WAR)
And No. 2:
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a hitter with a .280/.372/.570 slash line and 41 stolen bases in 726 plate appearances (8.3 WAR)
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162 games of the best defensive center fielder in baseball (2.1 WAR)
Voters overwhelmingly chose No. 2, which also came with the benefit of late-season momentum. By September, knee, neck and biceps issues were affecting Ohtani’s hitting as well, so the Dodgers placed him on the IL. That was effectively the end of the race.
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The Cubs went on to lose in the NL wild-card round, falling in two games to the San Diego Padres with Crow-Armstrong going 0-for-7 with a walk and four strikeouts. That didn’t affect the MVP voting, as all award votes are cast at the end of the regular season.
As disappointing as the ending was, the 2026 season was ultimately a triumph for Crow-Armstrong. The New York Mets selected him 19th overall out of high school in the 2020 MLB Draft, then traded him to the Cubs a year later in a Javier Báez deal that now ranks among the most regrettable for any team in recent memory.
Crow-Armstrong reached the majors in 2023, became a full-time starter in 2024, an All-Star and Gold Glover in 2025 and, finally, an MVP in 2026. His career has been a steady but steep rise into the highest tier of MLB superstars, and he may only be getting started at 24 years old.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
