{"id":587758,"date":"2026-02-23T04:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/587758\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T04:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:29:19","slug":"this-chicago-cubs-all-star-is-projected-to-be-the-teams-top-player-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/587758\/","title":{"rendered":"This Chicago Cubs All-Star is projected to be the team&#8217;s top player in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Cubs are one of the projected top teams entering the 2026 season. They have some major names on their roster, and they should be viewed as an upper-echelon team right now. While there are a handful of different players who could be the team\u2019s leader statistically, there is one player who is expected to be just that. Let\u2019s take a deeper dive into who it is projected to be and what they said about him.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Crow-Armstrong is projected to lead the Chicago Cubs in WAR this season<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-156870\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20900%20600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27276249_168419782_lowres-900x600.jpg\"\/>Oct 8, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (4) reacts after striking out against the Milwaukee Brewers in the third inning during game three of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The trio of Theo DeRosa, Brent Maguire, and Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru wrote an article projecting each team\u2019s top player this upcoming season. For the Cubs, they selected center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and predicted him to record 4.7 Wins Above Replacement. Below is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/top-projected-players-every-mlb-team-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">what they wrote<\/a> regarding the young outfielder:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2025, Crow-Armstrong put it all together with an incredible first half, hitting 25 homers and stealing 27 bases to go with fantastic defensive ability in center field \u2014 his +24 Outs Above Average were tied for the most in MLB. But a poor second half (.216\/.262\/.372 with only six homers) put a damper on PCA\u2019s breakout season. Still, the Cubs outfielder put up 5.4 WAR and is projected to lead a talented Chicago club in \u201926.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/pete-crow-armstrong-takes-aim-at-los-angeles-dodgers-fans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crow-Armstrong<\/a> ended up having a spectacular season, making his first National League All-Star team, Gold Glove, and finishing ninth in the 2025 NL MVP voting. He finished with a .768 OPS with 31 home runs, 95 RBI, 91 runs scored, and 35 stolen bases while being caught eight times in 157 games. With the addition of third baseman Alex Bregman in their lineup, it allows players like PCA to be overlooked and for him to dominate. It will be intriguing to see how he performs during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1330\" height=\"1702\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201330%201702'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Chicago Cubs: Will 2026 be doom or bloom for Daniel Palencia?\" class=\"post-image\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_27249435-scaled-e1771693951456.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        Chicago Cubs: Will 2026 be doom or bloom for Daniel Palencia?<br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-daniel-palencia-2026-spring-training\/\" class=\"read-more\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tFor More Great Chicago Sports Content<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"349\" height=\"108\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20349%20108'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770898591_673_image-10.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest Chicago sports news, analysis, and breaking stories on the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Sky, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>, so you never miss a story on your favorite Chicago teams.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicitysports23\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@chicitysports23<\/a> for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/chicagosports247\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE <\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs are one of the projected top teams entering the 2026 season. They have some major&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-587758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116118065537060701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}