Pete Crow-Armstrong gushes over hero Javy Baez: “He was the s**t”

Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has loudly been making his case for an MVP award this season with a 2026 that, at times, seems almost too grandiose to be real.

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On Monday, “PCA” opened the game with the crosstown rival White Sox at Wrigley Field with a leadoff home run and closed the game with a tenth inning walk off home run to close the game. On Tuesday, he led off, again, with a home run to give the Cubs the early lead.

On the season, the 24-year-old is hitting .282 with 31 home runs and 79 RBIs while also stealing 31 bases and playing elite outfield defense. Beyond the numbers, it seems like the young talent’s very presence on the field is electric and that he just makes things happen when he’s involved.

The last player to give off that kind of energy was shortstop Javier Baez.

Ironically enough, there are two ties that connect the Cub impact players.

First, of course, Crow-Armstrong came to the Cubs from the New York Mets organization in a 2021 trade for Baez and pitcher Trevor Williams.

The second connection is a lesser-known one—Baez was PCA’s baseball hero growing up.

“The most exciting thing to ever happen to my childhood”

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“I don’t know how to talk about it really,” Crow-Armstrong recently gushed on the Pardon My Take podcast. “Because it is crazy. That was my favorite player. That was my favorite player by far. I remember trying to hit like him in the cage.”

“Oh, God! I remember just everything about that guy,” he said. “I remember his first homer in Coors. Like, he just, he was the most exciting thing to ever happen to my childhood probably…That guy was the sh*t. He was the coolest.”

And when he learned as a 19-year-old prospect that he had been traded for his hero, Crow-Armstrong admits that it was hard to process.

“I did not believe it when I found out, really,” he said. “But yeah, I got to meet him last year.”

The PCA-Baez meeting

That first meeting took place in June of 2025 at Comerica Park against the Detroit Tigers.

Between innings, Crow-Armstrong approached Baez to thank him and let him know how much he meant to him.

“I got to say thank you for just existing because that’s why I’m here now,” Crow-Armstrong said.

Baez, who was once the gushing young star himself, was touched and came away with nothing but positives from the meeting.

“He’s a really nice guy,” Baez later said. “It feels good to know the young guys know my career.”

There really are a lot of similarities between the two players, aside from the energy they bring to the field every day. Elite, almost otherworldly, defense is one. The potential for impact offense is another.

Baez, however, was never quite able to conquer his instincts to hack at the plate and chase pitches out of the zone. Crow-Armstrong, who was similarly aggressive, seems to have tempered that flaw in his game this season.

PCA is now deeply in the conversation for MVP consideration while bringing Javy Baez “what will he do next” vibes to this 2026 Cubs team.

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