{"id":622647,"date":"2026-03-14T01:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/622647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:25:22","slug":"the-2026-chicago-cubs-season-hinges-on-this-player-per-espn-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/622647\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 Chicago Cubs season hinges on this player, per ESPN insider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Cubs are looking to be a World Series contender in 2026. They have some outstanding talent throughout their roster, but there are some significant players who need to step up in order to do so. Let\u2019s take a closer look at one player who could be the difference between Chicago\u2019s season being a success or a failure.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Passan puts the 2026 Chicago Cubs season on Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s shoulders<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-149492\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20393%20600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"MLB: Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs, Pete Crow-Armstrong\" width=\"393\" height=\"600\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_26675674-scaled-e1770761087147-393x600.jpg\"\/>MLB: Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs<br \/>Jul 20, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (4) catches a fly ball hit by Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story (not pictured) during the eighth inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crowape01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his 2026 season preview<\/a>, and when discussing the Cubs, he mentioned center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong being the player the season hinges on. Below is what Passan wrote about the outfielder heading into his age-24 season:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf all the players on the Cubs \u2014 and there are a lot of good ones \u2014 Crow-Armstrong is the most capable of carrying a team. Regardless of how he\u2019s hitting, his defense in center field and speed on the basepaths are elite. When he\u2019s hitting, though, as he did in the first half last season and in Team USA\u2019s WBC game against Italy, he\u2019s one of the 10 or 15 best players in the game. Yes, he doesn\u2019t walk enough. Yes, he strikes out too much. Those two qualities tend to be sticky. But if PCA can walk a little more and strike out a little less, suddenly you\u2019re looking at a true do-everything player. And when everyone on a team is good, greatness, or even potential greatness, tends to stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-2026-prediction-pressure-bregman-cabrera-counsell-pca\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crow-Armstrong<\/a> is going to be a significant factor this season after showcasing his abilities last season. He was able to be the NL Gold Glove winner at center fielder and ninth in the NL MVP voting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-pete-crow-armstrong-centerfielder-mlb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crow-Armstrong<\/a> posted a .768 OPS with 31 homers, 95 RBI, 91 runs scored, and 35 steals on 43 attempts over 157 games. As a result, his presence in the lineup and in the field will be significant to winning games for Chicago. It will be intriguing to see how Crow-Armstrong plays in the 2026 season and if he can improve on his 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1724\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202560%201724'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Chicago Cubs encouraged to sign still-available free agent slugger\" class=\"post-image\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_27122750-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        Chicago Cubs encouraged to sign still-available free agent slugger<br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-wilmer-flores-busch-shaw-free-agent\/\" 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 looking to be a World Series contender in 2026. They have some outstanding talent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-622647","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\/116224925628653552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622647","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=622647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}