AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh

PCA Wins Battle of MVP Candidates, Jokes About Getting on Mound to Cement Case

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanAugust 6, 2026

Shohei Ohtani must be a Honey Bun because media members are constantly glazing him. Understandably so, as he’s the kind of unicorn we just don’t see beyond the high school ranks. The big masher went on 3-for-5 with two homers on Wednesday, a performance that might otherwise have strengthened his MVP case. Except that it wasn’t even the most impressive performance by a DH in that game, and the better DH in question also happens to be the best defensive outfielder on the planet.

After Ohtani led off the game with a homer to put his team up early, Pete Crow-Armstrong ambushed the first pitch he saw to tie it up in the bottom of the 1st inning. With the Cubs up 2-1 in the bottom of the 2nd, PCA doubled home another run with a liner to right that made Kyle Tucker look silly. Then the 24-year-old superstar smashed a ball off the videoboard in right for his second homer, a two-run job that gave the Cubs a 5-1 advantage in the 5th inning.

Ohtani did his best to match Crow-Armstrong blow for blow, singling in the 5th and then hitting a two-run dinger of his own to bring the Dodgers to within one. His exploits were good enough for something like a 565 wRC+ on the afternoon, elevating him to a 154 mark with 26 homers on the season. Ohtani is also up to 6.4 bWAR and 6.7 fWAR, both of which count the pitching he hasn’t done in over a month and might not resume before the end of the season.

Again, incredible numbers that would very much make him a shoo-in MVP winner under normal circumstances. But PCA has reset the parameters. He just recorded 10 total bases for the seventh time in his career, tying him with Hal Trosky for the most games with 10+ total bases at age 24 or younger in the modern era. That seems good.

By going 3-for-5 with four RBI, Crow-Armstrong’s 605 wRC+ on the day raised him to a 156 on the season to go with 26 homers. Hey, that’s the same number of dongs as Ohtani. And since PCA is elite in the field when not dabbling at DH, his all-around dominance has him at 7.3 bWAR and 7.8 fWAR. Just don’t tell that to MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds, who is not willing to hear anything about a one-way player being better than Ohtani.

“I understand the swing change and all that, but the one thing I don’t see on any graphic with PCA: What is his ERA?” said the man who once claimed it was faster to slide headfirst into first base because of how swimmers start their races. “How many innings did he pitch? How many did he strike out?

“The man didn’t pitch!”

If we’re going since July 3, neither did Ohtani. Would we be talking about PCA’s defensive metrics if he’d been relegated to DH since before the All-Star Game? Of course not. The tide does appear to be turning in the youngster’s favor, however, with DraftKings updating the betting odds to make him the favorite at -120 (Ohtani is at +100) as of Wednesday evening. But sportsbooks change their outlook far quicker than BBWAA voters, and this is about displacing a man who’s achieved near-mythical status.

“I think Shohei is still the MVP; however, PCA is catching up very quickly,” said ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian. “He went into today with the best WAR in the National League, even though I’m not a big WAR guy…That’s how good PCA has been, but Shohei is different than everyone else.”

True though that may be, it’s tough to find a precedent for what Crow-Armstrong’s doing. At the end of April, his 0.8 fWAR ranked 53rd in MLB and fourth on his own team. By the end of May, he was at 2.1 fWAR to put him 20th overall and tops among Cubs players. Then came June, which saw him leap to the top of the leaderboard with 5.2 fWAR. That’s 3.1 wins in one month, which is what Dansby Swanson has for the year and more than 111 qualified MLB position players have accumulated all season.

Guess who was once again the most impactful player in the game over the month of July? I’ll remove the drama by letting you know it was indeed PCA. He’s also leading through the first few days of August, but there’s a long way to go. Same for the rest of the season, which could bring performance changes that make this all moot.

But we’re not talking about a player who is defined only by what he does at the plate. Crow-Armstrong’s 22 outs above average lead all defensive players and put him in a tie with Ceddanne Rafaela (2025) and Billy Hamilton (2016) for the second-most ever by an outfielder in the Statcast era. Byron Buxton‘s high-water mark of 25 in 2017 is well within reach, and could end up a distant second by the end of September.

Then you’ve got PCA’s 28 steals, good for fifth place among his “peers” in the game. The four players above him have combined for 31 homers, and only two other players in the top 30 steals leaders have hit more than 26 homers: CJ Abrams (21 steals, 28 homers) and James Wood (17 steals, 30 homers). The only thing missing is some mound work, which PCA joked about after completing the sweep of Ohtani and the Dodgers.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” the NL’s best player told reporters. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about it and it’s fun to acknowledge. And I think it’s absolutely okay to pay attention to, but again, it’s not like following me up to the plate.

“And yeah, I think if you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

While that’s never going to happen, Crow-Armstrong has 91st-percentile arm strength and was such a good pitcher on Team USA’s 12U squad that Paul Skenes was relegated to catcher. Maybe the Cubs could have found a way to juice his MVP odds if Jed Hoyer hadn’t gone out and added so many arms at the deadline. Just another sign that Jedward secretly hates his star player.

But seriously, we’ve reached the point where superlatives no longer apply because PCA is in a class of his own. I could just keep writing a similarly themed article every week without having to recycle much other than the foundational premise that we’re witnessing the ascent of a franchise cornerstone. Even if he never played another game this season, his 7.8 fWAR ties him with Ernie Banks in 1955 for the 10th-best season in Cubs history. Ryne Sandberg‘s 1984 campaign and Hack Wilson‘s record-setting 1930 season (both 8.0) are next.

Seeing as how he picked up 0.3 fWAR on Wednesday alone, moving into single digits by the weekend is a real possibility. It’s not at all inconceivable that PCA could do enough to best Sammy Sosa‘s 2001 (9.9) to move into second place, though surpassing the 11.0 from Rogers Hornsby in 1929 is probably a stretch. Still, the fact that we’re able to talk about this without batting an eye is indicative of just how good this kid can be.

Along with the help for the pitching staff, that’s what should make you feel pretty good about the Cubs’ chances in October. While having a strong all-around roster is great, there are times when you need a hero who can deliver when his team needs him most. PCA has shown time and again this season that he can be that player, and it’s pretty clear that he’s a fan of the spotlight.

This stretch run should be very enjoyable.

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanAugust 6, 2026
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