Pete Crow-Armstrong is back to setting MLB records, and this time it’s on defense. We are truly witnessing a generational talent, the best the Chicago Cubs have ever seen, and the best center fielder in the sport right now.

On Monday night, Crow-Armstrong made another five-star catch, robbing Zach McKinstry of a two-out single in the sixth inning.

The Cubs star center fielder now has 33 career five-star catches since making his MLB debut in Sept. 2023. Since Statcast began to track the difficulty of catches in 2016, Crow-Armstrong’s effort against the Tigers broke a tie with four-time Gold Glove winner Kevin Kiermaier for most five-star catches in the Statcast era.

But here’s what makes the new record insane. Take a look at how quickly Crow-Armstrong passed Kiermaier’s five-star catch mark.

That’s about 38% of Kiermaier’s playing time that Crow-Armstrong took to surpass the record Kiermaier amassed from 2016 to 2024.

Crow-Armstrong only needed 62 opportunities to get to 33 five-star catches, while everyone else in the top-10 in the category had at least 100 attempts at making those highlight catches. Another way to show how jaw-dropping this record really is: Crow-Armstrong’s success rate on making a five-star catch is at 53%.

That means he’s making a nearly impossible catch twice as often as the next best guy to do it in the past decade.

So far in 2026, MLB players are only making five-star catches less than 10% of the time.

Via MLB.com.

This year in the Majors, there have been nearly 1,600 opportunities for a fielder to make a 5-Star Catch. Only 131 times has it happened, which is to say: Something like 8% of 5-Star play opportunities actually get converted. Crow-Armstrong is six times better than that.

There is simply no one better, not even close to Pete Crow-Armstrong. Amazing.

The Chicago Cubs beat up on the Detroit Tigers Tuesday night, chasing starter Framber Valdez before he could complete the first inning. The 11-2 win erased the bad taste left from Monday night’s loss, but despite the blowout win, Pete Crow-Armstrong was the most pissed-off player on the field.

Crow-Armstrong leadoff with a triple in the first inning, scored on a Carson Kelly single, and then walked with the bases loaded, which was the final nail in Valdez’s coffin. The Cubs were up 6-0 after the first inning, went up seven with a Crow-Armstrong RBI single in the third, and added two more on a Michael Conforto home run in the fifth. Meanwhile, David Peterson shut down the Tigers’ offense, and by the time the bottom of the seventh inning rolled around, Detroit waived the white flag.

Former Cubs infielder Zach McKinstry was brought in to pitch as the Tigers trailed 9-0. As you may know, MLB does allow teams to use position players to come into blowout games, either if their team is winning by 10 or more runs, but only in the ninth inning in that case, or if their team is losing by eight or more runs at any point.

The Tigers obviously were in a brutal spot on Tuesday after Valdez only got two outs in the first inning. In the series opener, the Tigers used five relievers as Jack Flaherty only went four innings. In Sunday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Angels, the Tigers used four relievers because starting pitcher Casey Mize left with an injury in the fourth inning.

So, with a depleted bullpen, A.J. Hinch did what was best for his team. He rested his bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings, and as is the case most of the time when a position player comes in to pitch, it’s just not baseball anymore. Guys are lobbing the ball up there, while umpires are calling anything near the plate a strike. It’s not competitive, but it’s also in the rules, so you can’t really blame the Tigers for going to it to save their relief pitchers.

Well, Crow-Armstrong was up, and he was the most pissed-off player on the field. The body language said it all.

Unfortunately, we’ll keep seeing this as long as MLB maintains this rule. You’re not going to have a mercy rule in professional sports, so that’s out the window. The only solution is to completely ban position players from pitching, but then you get into the whole player safety aspect of the game because the teams are technically going to them to avoid overworking their pitchers in the bullpen.

After McKinstry walked three batters and gave up two runs, backup catcher Jake Rogers pitched a scoreless eighth inning and actually struck out two Cubs.

Maybe the team’s worst nightmare will actually be the leading reason that will incentivize Jed Hoyer and the Chicago Cubs front office to become more aggressive in the trade market. It’s been a season straight out of hell in regard to pitching injuries, and as we get closer to the 2026 MLB trade deadline, the Cubs aren’t exactly getting all the best updates from their sidelined pitchers.

Both the starting rotation and bullpen have been greatly affected by injuries, but the Cubs have maintained a playoff spot through the adversity. They may not be in a position to earn a first-round bye, but if they have any intention of going deep in October, then they’ll have to weigh the risk at the trade deadline to obtain much-needed help. Some of the latest injury updates point to the Cubs absolutely needing to make a few big deals at the trade deadline.

Cubs Pitching Injury Updates

Daniel Palencia has been on the injured list twice this season, and he hasn’t pitched since June 15 against the Colorado Rockies. The closer was initially expected to return in early August, but unfortunately, Palencia suffered a setback during the All-Star break.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell had updates on Palencia, among others, following the break. Palencia seems to be in a holding pattern after going down to Arizona.

Injury updates from Counsell via Elise Menaker.

Went to Arizona for the All-Star break, stayed there. Making progress but “not moving forward… so we’re having to repeat some steps so far.” Original timetable (early August) pushed back to mid-August.

The lone piece of positive news is that veteran lefty Hoby Milner should return by Aug. 1. He went out with appendicitis, so given that it wasn’t a baseball-related injury, Milner doesn’t have to worry about any actual pain from his arm. He had a 3.53 ERA in 35.2 innings before going on the injured list in late June.

As far as the starting rotation goes, Edward Cabrera won’t be back until the middle of August at the earliest. Meanwhile, Ben Brown has a neck strain, but the Cubs aren’t exactly 100% sure how his recovery will proceed even when it seems like he’s made progress.

“Everything has been really good,” switching off between throwing plyo balls and baseballs. “He’s been asymptomatic for a number of days now, but I don’t know if that means he’s healed up necessarily… we need to stretch that time out to make sure we don’t recreate them.”

As for Justin Steele, the time is running out for him to return, making September the best-case scenario, as he still looks to come back from elbow surgery and a setback in April.

“Throwing bullpens first week of August, longer ramp up because hasn’t pitched in two years.”

So, I’m not really sure the Cubs can count on Palencia, Brown, and Steele with 100% certainty down the stretch. Not really sure what Cabrera will give you after missing a couple of months, which leaves the team with a handful of major question marks once you start to plan out a pitching staff for the playoffs.

That might mean a group of up to four new pitchers at the trade deadline being the ultimate dream for the Cubs. However, three is more realistic, and probably two are the actual names they’ll get. Looking at the 2025 trade deadline, the star names are so hard to get, but it doesn’t mean a pitcher like Andrew Kittredge/s ilk can’t contribute.

Still, the number of injuries this time around could sway the Cubs to make bigger trades to put them in a better position to line up against the best teams in the National League in October.

Yeah, this one was pretty easy to call. The Chicago Cubs have released left-handed relief pitcher Aaron Bummer, who signed a minor league deal with the team at the end of May. Bummer was with the Atlanta Braves to begin the 2026 season, but he was jettisoned after an awful showing in 19 games.

You can’t blame the Cubs for trying, but this move didn’t really inspire confidence in the fan base. At one point, Bummer was a severely underrated reliever with the Chicago White Sox, but the lefty hasn’t been productive for a handful of years, and all the signs pointed downward for Bummer.

He had a 7.63 ERA in 15.1 innings this year before the Braves finally had enough. The Cubs signed him in May, assigned Bummer to work on things down in Arizona, and then the veteran went to Triple-A with the Iowa Cubs in July. Bummer only made four appearances with the Iowa Cubs, and he allowed at least one run in three of those games. His last outing at Triple-A came on July 12, when Bummer gave up a home run in his inning of work. The Cubs released Bummer on July 16.

But it didn’t take long for Bummer to get another opportunity, as the 32-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals.

From 2019-22, Bummer made 161 appearances with the White Sox. During those four seasons, the left-handed reliever recorded a 2.59 ERA, with a 27.2 K% and 71.1% ground ball rate. That was elite stuff from Bummer, who signed a five-year, $16 million contract that included options for 2025 and 2026.

Following the 2023 season, the White Sox continued to tear down their roster, and Bummer was traded to the Braves in exchange for five players: Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake, and Riley Gowens.

Bummer rebounded after a poor year and recorded a 3.58 ERA in 55.1 innings with the Braves in 2024. Following the season, he and the Braves restructured his contract, which guaranteed him $2.5 million in 2025 and $9.5 million in 2026. The left-hander had another decent year in 2025, but there were signs of decline: a 3.81 ERA and a strikeout rate of only 21.7%.

Aaron Bummer’s Decline
2024: 3.58 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 2.52 xFIP, 28.3 K%, 7.4 BB%, 59.7 GB%, 93.7mph average fastball velocity
2025: 3.81 ERA, 3.52 FIP, 3.68 xFIP, 21.7 K%, 7.2 BB%, 53.9 GB%, 91.6mph average fastball velocity
2026: 7.63 ERA, 8.62 FIP, 5.55 xFIP, 16.9 K%, 13.0 BB%, 46.2 GB%, 90.3mph average fastball velocity

No harm, no foul, I guess. The Cubs have released a handful of veterans in July in addition to Bummer, including Liam Hendriks, Kyle Wright, and, most recently, Drew Pomeranz.

Well, so much for that. Back in May, and well, it’s still happening now, the Chicago Cubs were grabbing any healthy arm available for nothing, and that included Liam Hendriks. The veteran pitcher and former All-Star closer was with the Minnesota Twins in spring training, but after he failed to make their Opening Day roster, Hendriks was sitting around as a free agent. The Cubs signed him to a minor league contract, and with the number of pitching injuries the Cubs have suffered, you thought it was only a matter of time before he was called up from Triple-A.

It looks like Hendriks exercised an opt-out in his deal with the Cubs because, unless there’s an injury that hasn’t been made public, Hendriks was putting up good results before his release during the All-Star break. The 37-year-old pitcher made five appearances in the Cubs’ minor league system after he signed in May. He did not give up a single run, including four near-perfect outings at Triple-A.

Hendriks struck out two batters in a clean inning of work down in the Arizona Complex League before he was assigned to the Iowa Cubs in July. In four games with Iowa, Hendriks struck out five and gave up only one hit and one walk. Hendriks was perfect in his last three relief appearances with a strikeout in each game, and given how the bullpen has performed in high-leverage spots this year, you would have thought the organization would have given Hendriks a look.

But nope, the Cubs determined Hendriks wasn’t worth a 40-man roster spot, and despite his good results in the minors, he was let go on July 16.

From 2019-2022, Hendriks was one of the best closers in MLB. During that four-year stretch, Hendriks recorded a 39.0 K% in 237 innings. A true shutdown reliever, as opposing hitters only had a .189 batting average against him, while he limited traffic on the bases with a 0.89 WHIP. In those four seasons, Hendriks saved 114 games out of 132 chances, the third most among all MLB closers.

In 2025, he made his return to the big leagues after undergoing Tommy John surgery in Aug. 2023. That paled in comparison to Hendriks being diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in January 2023. Fortunately, Hendriks announced in April of that year that he was cancer-free and in remission after completing treatment. He made his season debut with the White Sox on May 29, 2023, but he went down with elbow inflammation after pitching in five games.

A couple of months later, the White Sox revealed that Hendriks would miss the rest of the season following his Tommy John surgery.

In 2024, Hendriks signed a two-year, $10 million deal with the Red Sox. He returned to the mound in the minor leagues in August as part of his rehab, and after making three more minor league appearances in the minors to begin the 2025 season, Hendriks was called up by Boston. He made his Red Sox debut against the White Sox on April 20, 2025, giving up two runs in one inning. He then had eight consecutive shutout appearances for the Red Sox, but after a handful of rough outings, Hendriks was placed on the injured list because of a hip issue.

Hendriks was eventually transferred over to the 60-day injured list and did not pitch again in 2025. Then, in late September, the Red Sox revealed that Hendriks underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery on his right elbow.