Chicago Cubs: PCA gets deep and honest on the internal pressure he feels

Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is most definitely not the only player to feel extreme stress and strain under major league pressure. He may be, however, the most open about it.

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Last season, the emerging superstar had a ton of ups and, unfortunately, a ton of downs.

At the All-Star break, he was killing it and stirring up MVP talk. He had already hit 25 home runs, had stolen 27 bases, and had driven in 71 runs– all while playing dazzlingly spectacular defense.

After making his first All-Star game (and as a starter, to boot), “PCA” fell off considerably. The rest of the way, he managed just 6 home runs, 24 RBIs, and 8 stolen bases, although his defense held steady.

The young talent showed his frustration, too. He flung helmets, kicked dirt, and just looked genuinely anguished over his extended offensive flat-line.

PCA opens up on stress and strain of big league life

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One of the things that makes the soon-to-be 24-year-old so endearing and engaging to fans is the fact that he wears his heart on his sleeve. It makes you want to cheer louder in his moments of triumph, but it also makes you feel his pain when things get bad.

“That’s the stuff that keeps me up. It’s never because I went 0 for 4 that I can’t sleep. It’s always because I’m embarrassed. Pissed and embarrassed,” Crow-Armstrong told Wayne Drehs in a recent profile piece for Chicago Magazine. “I don’t throw my stuff all around and spaz out to show people I give a shit. What it shows is that it’s something I still need to work on.”

Crow-Armstrong’s “spazzing out” may have kept him from pulling himself out of that extended second-half slump.

“What’s undeniable is that baseball is too hard to go out there every day and succeed,” Crow-Armstrong added. “That is for some reason the one thing I can’t yet rewire in myself. It’s harder than any mechanical change or anything that I’ve had to fix…

“I’m just lacking in that area. I’m a little late to get there. That’s about growing up and having the self-discipline to be a better teammate. I need to keep it present and forward-thinking instead of dwelling all the time on what I could have done better.”

A rough second half

But, in the last part of 2025, PCA did dwell. Getting inside his own head led to some mechanical issues in his swing and also some poor swing decisions as he pressed to get his groove back.

“It’s definitely the swing decisions,” Crow-Armstrong recently told The Athletic. “I know what I do well. I know what I don’t do well. I know that I chase. I know I can get away with hitting bad balls and doing damage on bad balls, but there is no consistency there. It’s very sporadic.”

So, this offseason, the focus has been on consistency and in settling down, both mentally and emotionally.

“He is one of the most competitive players I’ve ever been around,” Cubs assistant hitting coach John Mallee told Dreyhs. “He shows his emotions. He never wants to let his teammates down. So when he fails, he’s such a team guy and wants to win so bad he takes it out on himself.”

Strength in acceptance

The fact that we know all of this about Crow-Armstrong is not a testament to any sort of mental frailty or fragility, but, rather, a testament to his willingness to say these things that many young players wouldn’t. If anything, it’s a sign of maturity.

“I just want to be the best Cub I can be,” PCA wrote in a piece last September for The Players’ Tribune, in the midst of his struggles.

“And how do I do that when I’m not being the ballplayer I need to be?

“I’m workin’ on that. I promise…

“Because I know what it means to wear this jersey. I know the responsibility that comes with it. I have for a long time…

“I’ve got to give myself some grace. Stop trying to force it. Accept how I don’t have all the answers — I think it’s OK to do that.

“And I think that when the time comes, when those big moments come, you’re going to see the real ballplayer I am. And you’re going to see the type of Cub I want to be.”

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-pete-crow-armstrong-pca-pressure-2026/