Pete Crow-Armstrong steals 40th base, joining 40-40 club in one of best Cubs seasons ever

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 40th base of the season on Thursday afternoon, a few weeks after belting his 40th career home run, which means the breakout star is now the seventh member of the 40-40 club in MLB history. He's all the way up to 45 home runs now to go with his 40 steals. Here's the historic 40th theft. 

The previous entries: 

Canseco, Acuña and Ohtani won league MVP in those same seasons, and it appears PCA is headed in that direction. 

As things stand, Crow-Armstrong is hitting .280/.374/.577 (157 OPS+) with 31 doubles, eight triples, 45 home runs, 107 RBI, 119 runs and 40 steals. He leads the majors in runs, home runs, total bases and WAR (9.8) while leading the NL in slugging, OPS and OPS+. With the injury to Ohtani keeping him off the mound and later placing him on the IL, the path is clear for the first Cubs NL MVP since Kris Bryant took the honors in 2016. The hunch here is PCA wins the award unanimously.

But PCA isn't just having an MVP-caliber season; he's putting together one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history. He's the first Cubs player to ever reach the 40-40 plateau, but before he came around, there had only been two 30-30 seasons, both by Sammy Sosa. PCA has now done it twice in a row and he's still only 24 years old. 

Further, he's in rarified air in club history if we look at WAR, which takes hitting, baserunning and defense into account as a kind of "catch-all" stat (note: It is required by law here that I point out this isn't the only important stat and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool). 

Among Cubs position players, here are the top 10 seasons by Baseball Reference's WAR (heading into Tuesday): 

1. Rogers Hornsby, 1929, 10.6 WAR
2. Sammy Sosa, 2001, 10.3
3. Ernie Banks, 1959, 10.2
t4. Pete Crow-Armstrong, 2026, 9.8
t4. Ron Santo, 1967, 9.8
6. Ernie Banks, 1958, 9.3
t7. Ron Santo, 1966, 8.9
t7. Ron Santo, 1964, 8.9
9. Ryne Sandberg, 1984, 8.5
10. Ernie Banks, 1955, 8.1

Over in the FanGraphs version, he scores even better. Here are the top 10 in Cubs history, where he has the best season in nearly a century: 

1. Rogers Hornsby, 1929, 11.0
2. Pete Crow-Armstrong, 2026, 10.6
3. Sammy Sosa, 2001, 9.9
4. Ernie Banks, 1959, 9.7
5. Ron Santo, 1967, 9.5
6. Ernie Banks, 1958, 8.7
7. Ron Santo, 1964, 8.7
8. Ron Santo, 1966, 8.5
9. Hack Wilson, 1930, 8.0
10. Ryne Sandberg, 1984, 8.0

As a reminder, the WAR guidelines typically view 5.0 as an All-Star-caliber player and 8.0 as an MVP-caliber performer. Getting into double digits is generally considered an all-time great season. 

The all-around performance here is what is staggering. The numbers at the plate say PCA has been one of the best hitters in baseball this season. He's in the top five in stolen bases and rates out excellently in other baserunning metrics. He's arguably the best defensive player in baseball, too, sitting in first in fielding run value and outs above average.

When you take a 40-40 player with a strong triple-slash line who is a terror on the bases and an incredible defensive player, you get one of the best individual seasons the Cubs franchise has ever seen. 

And he's only 24 years old. 

It's a special season for Pete Crow-Armstrong. As his Cubs eye the postseason, he'll look to lead them to a special season as a team next.