The Chicago Cubs are reportedly calling up Pete Crow-Armstrong, the team’s number one prospect, and there is no reason the center fielder should not get an actual chance to play following his promotion to MLB.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the call up on Monday.
The 21-year-old outfielder began the 2023 season at Double-A and following four impressive months with the Tennessee Smokies, the Cubs bumped PCA up to Triple-A. Crow-Armstrong ended his time with a bang, hitting two grand slams last week, including one on Sunday, when he went 4-for-5 at the plate.
Overall in 34 games at Triple-A, Crow-Armstrong slashed .271/.350/.479, with 6 home runs and 10 stolen bases.
Now with his promotion, Crow-Armstrong ends his second season in the Cubs minor league system with a slash line of .283/.365/.511, 20 home runs, 26 doubles, 7 triples and 37 stolen bases.
So, it’s certainly exciting to see the Cubs call up their-highest ranked prospect in a while, but there are fans still skeptical about how the team will use him and you can’t blame their pessimism.
It’s not exactly the same situation, but earlier this month the Cubs called up another one of their young outfield prospects in Alexander Canario. Not that we were expecting the slugger to come in and start every day, but fans certainly thought he’d get a few starts here and there. Well, after nearly two weeks, Canario has one pinch-hit plate appearance and the team has made it clear that he is very much at the bottom of the depth chart.
Well, there is no excuse with Crow-Armstrong. Again, not saying PCA should become the automatic starter in center field, but when Cody Bellinger starts at first base, then PCA should be getting the majority of these starts in the outfield and here’s why.
While Mike Tauchman was incredible from the time he was called up in May through the first week or so of August, he has crashed back to Earth and has been hurting the offense more than he has helped during the past month.
After Aug. 9, Tauchman was one of the most beloved players on the team. Through that date, the left-handed hitter had an .821 OPS in 254 plate appearances. Since then, Tauchman has played in 26 games and in 95 plate appearances he’s been worse than Eric Hosmer was in April and just as bad as Matt Mervis was in his month in the majors earlier this season.
And it’s not just that Tauchman’s numbers have been awful because sometimes there are stretches when players hit into bad luck, but at least they’re still hitting the ball hard all over the field. That has not been the case with Tauchman in the past month.
Tauchman isn’t making quality contact anymore, while his ground ball rate has hiked and his line drive rate has tumbled.
In addition to that, Tauchman’s strikeout rate has gone from 19.7% in his first 66 games to 23.2% in his last 26 games.
The Cubs begin a road trip on Monday and really this is the perfect spot to see Crow-Armstrong make his first couple MLB starts. The Colorado Rockies have an enormous outfield and although Tauchman has been solid on defense this year, he does not have the defensive skills that PCA possesses.
Stop the bullshit, Mike Tauchman has not earned the luxury of getting every start against a right-handed pitcher. Play Pete Crow-Armstrong.
