Who is PCA And What Does His 40/40 Season Mean For Baseball?

Why Is Everyone in Baseball Talking About PCA?

Every so often, baseball produces a player who makes fans stop scrolling and start watching. In 2026, that player is Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Chicago Cubs center fielder the baseball world simply calls PCA.

PCA made history on September 24, when he stole his 40th base of the season in the first inning against the Miami Marlins at Wrigley Field, becoming the seventh player in MLB history with a 40-40 season and the first Cub ever to do it. He finished the regular season with 45 home runs, 41 steals, and 10.6 FanGraphs WAR, a mark topped in franchise history only by Rogers Hornsby in 1929, even though the Cubs' October ended early in a two-game Wild Card sweep by the San Diego Padres. In this article, Hollywood Branded discusses who PCA is, what he means to baseball, and what his rise teaches brand marketers about partnering with athletes on the way up.Photo Credit: Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images

How Did Pete Crow-Armstrong Become a Cubs Star?

PCA's story starts in Southern California, not Chicago. He was born March 25, 2002, in Sherman Oaks, California, and attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he was named the Los Angeles Times Player of the Year as a junior in 2019. The New York Mets made him a first-round pick in 2020, then traded him to Chicago in 2021, in a deal that sent one of his own favorite players, Javier Báez, to New York. His big league start was humbling, because after his September 2023 call-up he went 0-for-14 over 12 games. The turnaround came quickly, though: when he returned in 2024, his first major league hit was a go-ahead two-run home run off Houston's Bryan Abreu.

The 2025 season turned PCA from prospect into star. He started the All-Star Game that July after hitting 25 first-half home runs and stealing 27 bases, but his production dipped badly in the second half. Even with that slide, he won a Gold Glove and finished ninth in National League MVP voting, and he was one of only seven players to produce a 30-30 season that year. The Cubs responded with a long-term commitment, as the two sides agreed on a six-year, $115 million extension that starts in 2027. Before the 2026 regular season even began, he helped Team USA earn a silver medal at the World Baseball Classic, and he went on to make his second All-Star team.

Photo Credit: xGordonxDonovanx

What Makes PCA's Game Different From Other Young Stars?

Most young stars arrive with one elite tool, but PCA brings several at once. His defense came first, with plus-15 Defensive Runs Saved and plus-21 Outs Above Average in 2025, numbers that kept him in the lineup even when his bat went cold. His speed makes him a threat every time he reaches base, and his power has grown faster than almost anyone projected, which Cubs manager Craig Counsell explained by saying "Power is more [of] a learned trait than we give it credit for." This season, a two-homer night against Atlanta moved him past Hall of Famer Billy Williams for the most home runs in a single season by a left-handed hitter in Cubs history. Then on September 24, he joined Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006), Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023) and Shohei Ohtani (2024) as the only players to accomplish a 40-40 season. With 45 home runs, he is also just the third player with at least 45 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season, joining Ohtani and Soriano.

What makes his 2026 season even more compelling is where it started. After fading late in 2025, PCA was candid about his weaknesses, admitting in spring training that he chases bad pitches and that his consistency at the plate was sporadic. The early weeks did not look promising, since by mid-April he was hitting .221 with a .264 on-base percentage and one home run. Instead of unraveling, he kept working on the swing adjustments he had targeted all offseason, aiming to make his swing more consistent and compact. The payoff was dramatic, because after hitting just .224 through May 29, he answered "overrated" chants from Cardinals fans in St. Louis with a home run and took off for the rest of the season. That arc from April slump to history-making September is exactly the kind of storyline fans rally around, and it had his own front office searching for superlatives, with Cubs president Jed Hoyer calling it "the best position-player season I've ever seen in my career."

Photo Credit: JustBaseball via X

Why Does PCA Matter Beyond the Box Score?

PCA may be the only star in baseball whose childhood reads like a Hollywood script. His mom, Ashley Crow, is famous among baseball fans for playing the mom in the 1994 movie "Little Big League," the story of a 12-year-old who becomes owner and manager of the Minnesota Twins. His dad, Matthew John Armstrong, is an actor known for roles in "Turks," "The Profile," and "Heroes." PCA has said his parents were deeply involved in his athletic childhood, and he recalls that his mom and dad played softball together in their actors' league. For a player whose career is now unfolding under the bright lights of Wrigley Field, that entertainment industry upbringing is part of what makes his story so easy to tell.

His personality matters just as much as his pedigree. MLB's own coverage describes him as colorful in personality, style and commentary, and a fan favorite among young Cubs fans. That connection was on full display when he reached the 40-40 milestone, as the Wrigley Field crowd chanted "M-V-P" while he saluted them from second base. That matters because baseball, like every sport, competes for the attention of younger audiences who follow athletes as much as they follow teams. PCA gives the league a star who can own highlight reels, drive social conversation, and show up in fashion and lifestyle spaces that traditional baseball endorsements rarely reached. He is also positioned for a major cultural moment ahead, because the 2027 MLB All-Star Game is coming to Wrigley Field in July 2027, putting Chicago's newest superstar at the center of the sport's biggest summer showcase.

What Can Brands Learn From PCA's Rise?

The most useful lesson in PCA's story is timing. Gatorade signed him right before Opening Day, making him the first MLB addition to its athlete roster since Seattle's Julio Rodríguez in 2023. Then New Balance moved even more boldly: it announced his deal while he was mired in a prolonged offensive slump. Both brands bet on the person and the trajectory rather than a single month of stats. Five months later, their athlete finished one of the rarest seasons in baseball history, leading the majors in home runs and both major versions of WAR while posting an NL-best .942 OPS. The Cubs' quick playoff exit doesn't change what those brands bought into, because they bet on the athlete and his story, and that story is still being written. For brand marketers, the takeaway is that the most valuable partnerships are often built before a star's peak, when the story is still being written and the brand gets to be part of it from the start.

The second lesson is fit, and both deals nail it. Gatorade is a Chicago-based brand, and its announcement leaned into an authentic connection, with PCA saying he has been drinking Gatorade since his Little League days and joking that a hydration assessment named him the saltiest sweater on the team. New Balance tapped into his style, and PCA has said he appreciates that the brand sees him as a little more than a baseball player.

Photo Credit: Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images

What Does PCA's Future Mean for Baseball and Brand Marketers?

Pete Crow-Armstrong is more than a stat line, even in a season when his stat line is historic. He finished the regular season hitting .280/.372/.570 with 45 home runs, 107 RBI, 119 runs and 41 steals, and he did it as a homegrown Los Angeles kid with Hollywood roots, an elite defender, and a personality young fans genuinely connect with. October ended sooner than Cubs fans hoped, but his comeback from a rough spring to a 40-40 September gives baseball exactly the kind of star it needs, one whose story travels well beyond the ballpark. With a contract that runs through 2032, an NL MVP announcement still ahead, and the 2027 All-Star Game heading to Wrigley Field, his influence on the sport is likely only getting started.

For marketers, PCA's rise offers clear takeaways. Look at trajectory and character, not just this month's numbers. Choose partners whose story lines up authentically with your brand, the way Gatorade's Chicago roots and New Balance's lifestyle positioning match PCA's. Plan beyond a single moment so your brand can grow alongside the athlete over multiple seasons. And build every partnership for Mutual Benefit, because fans can tell the difference between a real connection and a logo swap.

Photo Credit: Gatorade

Eager To Learn More?

If PCA's story has you thinking about how athlete partnerships could work for your brand, these Hollywood Branded articles go deeper.

• Influencer Marketing in Sports: Leveraging Athlete Endorsements
• Athlete Brand Celebrity Endorsers: High Reward And Low Risk
• Winning Strategies: How Sports Brands Leverage Partnerships for Marketing Success
• The Power Of Celebrity Endorsements For National And Regional Brands
• The Top 10 Highest Endorsed Athletes And Their Brands
  

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