Although he was arguably the top prospect the Chicago Cubs acquired in trade this summer, we knew it was going to be a while before we actually got to see outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong in action.
The 2020 Mets first round pick came to the Cubs in the Javy Báez trade, with the Cubs contributing cash (and Trevor Williams) to the deal so they could land a guy who is uniformly in their top five prospect grouping now. But even in a deal like that, PCA was not going to be available if he’d been healthy. An early-season shoulder injury led to season-ending surgery, and a very long wait before he could even pick up a bat again. So, at the moment in time, he was available to the Cubs (awesome), but we weren’t going to see him play until next year (less awesome).
Still, I am a huge prospect nerd, so I was very happy today to see that PCA was finally able to get back into the cage and start taking some swings. He shared it on his Instagram, happy to be “back doin tha thang”:
Good to see Pete Crow-Armstrong back in the cages pic.twitter.com/zFADu2VFXd
— RushingBaseball (@RushingBaseball) November 16, 2021
Most importantly, this indicates a good trajectory for Crow-Armstrong to be ready for a normal Spring Training, and demonstrate how the bat is looking after so long away from competitive action (there are no worries about the glove, which figures to be excellent in center field).
His initial assignment with the Cubs will be really interesting, because he has just six games of low-A experience (drafted in the pandemic year, then the injury last year), and he’ll be 20 in March. High-A South Bend feels really aggressive, but it’s conceivable depending on how he looks in Spring Training. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed by anything from Low-A Myrtle Beach down to some extended Spring Training and Complex time to get his feet under him.