In terms of hitting, baserunning, and defense, no player in Major League Baseball matched Pete Crow-Armstrong’s performance across all three aspects this season. He rightfully received some accolades for that on Thursday.
The Chicago Cubs outfielder was awarded the 2026 National League MVP Award, surpassing finalists Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers. He is the first player from the Cubs to earn this recognition since Kris Bryant in 2016.
The voting results were unanimous, with Crow-Armstrong claiming all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). This marks the 11th instance in the history of the National League where this has occurred for the MVP, and the fourth straight year following Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023, along with Ohtani in 2024 and 2025.
Ohtani garnered 26 second-place votes, while Turang, Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski, and Philadelphia Phillies star Kyle Schwarber accounted for the remaining four votes.
In the American League, Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros achieved a unanimous MVP award following an extraordinary offensive season. This marks the third time in the last four years that both MVP awards have been granted unanimously, alongside 2023 (Ohtani and Acuña) and 2024 (Ohtani and Aaron Judge).
Up until 2023, such a scenario had never transpired in the history of the BBWAA MVP awards, which date back to 1931. Additionally, this is the inaugural instance in Major League Baseball’s history where both MVP honorees and both Cy Young award recipients were awarded unanimously.
By the end of the season, Crow-Armstrong had made an overwhelming case for the MVP title. If one were to encapsulate it in a single sentence, it might read, “A player just achieved the seventh 40-homer, 40-stolen base season in MLB’s history while providing arguably the most defensive value of any player in the league.”
Crow-Armstrong notched 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases, making his way into the 40-40 club, which includes Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Acuña, and Ohtani. He stood out as the leading hitter in the National League this season, leading in home runs (45), runs (119), slugging percentage (.570), OPS (.943), and total bases (357).
Defensively, he secured his second consecutive Gold Glove in center field and topped all Major League Baseball in Statcast’s Fielding Run Value with a score of 26. Both the visual assessment and advanced metrics corroborated his defensive prowess; his glove was a formidable asset this season.
Aside from being the clear MVP, he also earned the Hank Aaron Award as the National League’s premier hitter and the Platinum Glove as the top fielder in the NL. No other player has achieved this feat since the inception of the Platinum Glove in 2011.
Pete Crow-Armstrong ran away with MVP in the second half
Crow-Armstrong encountered some difficulties at the start of the year, concluding May with a batting average of .237/.325/.388.
However, Ohtani ceased pitching in early July due to a knee ailment that required a lubricating injection during the All-Star break. As his return to pitching got postponed well into 2027, Ohtani became strictly a hitter, with Crow-Armstrong more than keeping pace, achieving a slash line of .302/.397/.668 after May due to an adjustment in his swing in the middle of the season.
Three of Ohtani’s four MVP awards were built upon his dual-role contributions. He excelled as a hitter in each season, and even a limited number of successful innings from a pitcher generally hold greater value than the contributions of most position players defensively. However, Crow-Armstrong’s defensive skills were in a league of their own.
The comparison can be distilled into two pairs of statistics, utilizing 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 featuring the best defensive center fielder in baseball (2.1 WAR)
Voters decisively preferred No. 2, which also benefited from late-season momentum. By September, Ohtani’s knee, neck, and biceps issues were impacting his hitting as well, leading the Dodgers to place him on the injured list. That effectively concluded the MVP race.
The Cubs ultimately faced a defeat in the NL wild-card round, losing two games to the San Diego Padres, with Crow-Armstrong finishing 0-for-7, which included a walk and four strikeouts. This outcome did not influence the MVP voting, as all award votes are finalized at the end of the regular season.
Despite the disappointing conclusion, the 2026 season proved to be a remarkable achievement for Crow-Armstrong. The New York Mets drafted him 19th overall from high school in the 2020 MLB Draft and traded him to the Cubs a year later in a deal involving Javier Báez, which is now regarded as one of the most regrettable transactions in recent memory.
Crow-Armstrong made his major league debut in 2023, became a full-time starter in 2024, earned All-Star and Gold Glove honors in 2025, and ultimately claimed the MVP title in 2026. His career trajectory has been a steady yet steep ascent into the elite ranks of MLB superstars, and he might just be at the beginning of his journey at 24 years of age.
