Pete Crow-Armstrong Wins a Much-Deserved NL Player of the Month

The calendar flipped from June to July earlier this week, closing the book on a month to remember for Pete Crow-Armstrong. Friday morning, Major League Baseball officially put the Chicago Cubs star’s 30-day stretch in its record books by name him the National League Player of the Month for June.

Crow-Armstrong had his struggles for most of the first two months of the season. Even as late as May 29, he had posted a 91 wRC+ and a .676 OPS on the year (240 plate appearances). He’d even had a few uncharacteristic defensive miscues in center field. The doubters were loud as he continued looking to reach that level the Cubs know he can play at.

However, entering June, he’d already showed plenty of signs that he was figuring things out. Over his last 10 games of May, he slashed .297/.426/.541/168 wRC+. His strikeout rate over 47 plate appearances was down to 21.3% while his walk rate sat at 14.9%.

You could certainly say he his bat was waking up, and that set the stage for a June nobody will soon forget.

A Historic Month of June

Over 26 games, Crow-Armstrong slashed .381/.468/.781/235 wRC+. He homered 11 times, tripled twice, doubled five times, stole eight bases, recorded 20 RBIs and scored 21 times. Overall, he was worth 3.1 Wins Above Replacement (FanGraphs).

Only one qualified hitter topped his batting average in June. But when it came to on-base percentage, slugging percentage, wRC+ and fWAR, Crow-Armstrong led the majors.

Just to put his month into a historical perspective:

• In the long history of the Cubs, no player has ever recorded at least 40 hits, 11 home runs, 21 runs, 20 RBIs and eight steals in a single month.

• In MLB history, only Barry Bonds has at least matched each of those numbers (1992). However, that came over a September/October combined stretch for Bonds, so it includes five more games than Crow-Armstrong played in June.

The month was filled memorable moments as Crow-Armstrong continued his rise.

There was his first career walk-off hit in a 7-6 win over the A’s on June 4. That moment was even more memorable since earlier on, he lost a ball in the sky that fell behind him for a two-run, inside-the-park homer, only for him to quickly put the play behind him and get Chicago on the board with a homer of his own.

Two days later, he homered twice against the San Francisco Giants. The second was massive, coming with the Cubs down a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. That set up another walk-off win in extra innings. And let’s not forget his performance on June 15, when he became only the 13th player in Cubs history to hit for the cycle.

“It’s like, don’t miss a pitch,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said in early June. “It’s incredible, really. … You’re out of kind of things to say when he gets on these rolls.”

June featured a number of big, clutch moments for Crow-Armstrong. Time and time again, he came through. And the good thing is he wants to find himself in those big moments, especially when they come in front of the Wrigley Field crowd.

“That’s special stuff,” Crow-Armstrong said June 6. “We get to play this game. We’re all lucky enough to be able to show up every day. Couns’ made an interesting point to me the other day where he said, ‘It just kind of feels like it’s a bunch of ‘have to.’ We have to get the job done. We have to pick it up, turn it around, win these games.’ It’s like, you can’t forget that we get to do this.”

Already a Gold Glove defender, Crow-Armstrong more than lived up to his potential at the plate in June.

Just Baseball's NL Player of the Month: Pete Crow-Armstrong pic.twitter.com/4hzc8O2Dmx

— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) July 1, 2026

The first three months of the season has been a bit of a roller coaster for him. There’s of course the roll he’s been on for weeks, but there were also the struggles earlier in the season. There were plenty of highlight-reel plays, but there was also a viral interaction with a White Sox that didn’t show the best side of him.

The 24-year-old has persevered through everything and finds himself on an extended stretch of success. His 5.2 fWAR entering Friday leads all big leaguers. He surprisingly wasn’t voted to be an NL All-Star starter, but he should be a shoo-in to be named a reserve and has certainly played himself into the NL MVP conversation.

Crow-Armstrong still has some doubters, and he can rub non-Cub fans the wrong way. But through it all, he’s continuing to show he can be one of the best players in baseball.

“I’m growing up in the middle of all of it,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think, contrary to what a lot of people probably believe, I am absolutely getting better for all the downs, and the ups as well.”