Pete Crow-Armstrong’s Explosive June Puts Him Alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig

Pete Crow-Armstrong nearly lapped the field in June, posting a 3.1 fWAR mark that left Detroit’s Dillon Dingler (1.8) in the dust. To put that in context, only nine other qualified hitters accumulated as much fWAR as the gap between PCA and second place. Or how about the fact that Dansby Swanson is the Cubs’ non-PCA leader, and he’s only got 2.1 fWAR for the entire season? If you really want your brain scrambled, consider that Sammy Sosa only posted 1.6 fWAR while hitting 20 homers in June of 1998.

I almost didn’t include that, knowing it would further invalidate WAR as a general concept for those who are already leery of advanced metrics, but we also need to remember what was happening in baseball in the late 90’s. And outside of Gary Disarcina at No. 13, the list of the WAR leaders in June of ’98 is strong to quite strong. It’s also important to note that, while Sosa slashed .298/.331/.842 with those 20 dingers, 25 runs, and 40 RBI, he stole no bases and played mediocre defense.

PCA capped off his extraordinary month by going 1-for-4 with a homer and another walk, bringing his June slash to .381/.468/.781 with 11 homers, 21 runs, 20 RBI, and eight steals. Oh, he also continued to play the best defense imaginable. Then there’s his 236 wRC+ — a number that is contextualized for the run environment of the era — which was 34 points higher than anyone else in MLB in either June of 2026 (Luis Garcia Jr.) or from 28 years ago (Jim Thome). Sosa’s 193 was almost pedestrian in comparison.

Okay, not really, but PCA was 43% better.

The numbers Crow-Armstrong generated are so outlandish that they’ve only been replicated in four other months by two players. By posting a .375+ average, .775+ slugging percentage, 80+ total bases, 15+ walks, 10+ home runs, and 5+ stolen bases, PCA now joins an uber-exclusive fraternity that counts Babe Ruth (June 1920, July 1920, May 1930) and Lou Gehrig (June 1930) as its founding members. Think about how many great players have come and gone in the span of 96 years, and understand that none of them did this.

Not Barry Bonds, not Ken Griffey Jr., not Domingo Ramos, not Ted Williams, not Joe DiMaggio, not Rick Wrona. Only PCA, Ruth, and Gehrig.

Pete Crow-Armstrong of the @Cubs is one of three players in MLB history to have a month with:

.375+ batting average
.775+ slugging pct
80+ total bases
15+ walks
10+ home runs
5+ stolen bases

The others are Babe Ruth (June 1920, July 1920, May 1930) and Lou Gehrig (June 1930). pic.twitter.com/ud5bAyf4wq

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 1, 2026

Now think about how many people you know — surely not you personally, as no one reading this ever doubted — were carrying on about how Crow-Armstrong was just a glove-first outfielder whose bat would never develop. Will he keep up this kind of production? Of course not, as no one in the game’s history has been this hot for more than two months in a row. But now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the capability is there.

And as we have seen from a plate approach that seems to have matured by a decade in just the last few weeks, fueled in part by some mechanical changes, there’s still room for growth. For all the talk about how the Cubs needed to be willing to go out and pay for a superstar, it looks like they’ve managed to do just that. Now imagine what the next six years could look like.