In his third full big-league season, Pete Crow-Armstrong already has made his case as the best outfielder in the game.
Kevin Kiermaier knew of Crow-Armstrong when the Chicago Cubs center fielder was still in the minor leagues. Kiermaier, the longtime Tampa Bay Rays center fielder, won four Gold Glove Awards and a Platinum Glove Award during his 11 big-league seasons. His center-field play rated among the best in the majors.
“I heard of this dude — ‘PCA, PCA, PCA, he might be your caliber player’ — and I’m like, OK, and I saw the highlights and just his speed, his arm, everything,” Kiermaier told the Tribune. “OK, this dude is good. But I need to see more.”
During his final major-league season in 2024, a trade-deadline move to the Los Angeles Dodgers meant Kiermaier got his first live look at Crow-Armstrong’s defense when the Cubs played at Dodger Stadium that September. He recalls it being the most impressive defensive series from an outfielder he had ever seen — and that version was just the beginning.
Over the last two seasons, Crow-Armstrong has taken his defense to another level, culminating in his first Gold Glove last year and likely another incoming for his 2026 performance.
“He is incredible, and if he keeps doing what he does and has the career that I think a lot of us think he might have and everything goes well, he’s definitely going to be in the argument for the best-ever type of thing with his numbers right now,” Kiermaier said. “For his amount of innings out there and what he’s done, it’d be hard to argue that he is not the best at this point.
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“He is elite right now — best defensive outfielder in baseball, and I don’t see that changing until further notice.”
Advanced metrics help quantify Crow-Armstrong’s elite ability beyond the eye test.
Crow-Armstrong is averaging +5.0 feet above average with his jump, best among MLB outfielders, while also averaging the most feet covered (39.8). And in the Statcast era, the 24-year-old has quickly set the marker for pulling off low-probability catches. In the Cubs game July 20 at Wrigley Field, Crow-Armstrong passed Kiermaier for the most 5-star catches, measured by a catch probability of 0-25%, since Statcast began tracking the data in 2016. The metric accounts for time, distance to cover and direction.
In the days after eclipsing Kiermaier, Crow-Armstrong has added to his mark. Through Tuesday, Crow-Armstrong had 35 5-star catches in just 1,123 innings with an absurd 54.7% success rate on 5-star balls. Kiermaier recorded 32 5-star catches in 2,118 innings, though the data doesn’t include his first two seasons in the big leagues when he was a Gold Glove Award finalist in right field (2014) and won his first Gold Glove Award in center field (2015).
When Kiermaier learned last week that Crow-Armstrong broke his 5-star-catches mark, he reflected on his career, some of the standout plays he made and how he demanded perfection from himself.
“When I see stuff like that, I say I wish I could get back out there, have some plays back instead of sitting here saying coulda, shoulda, woulda, but man, respect,” Kiermaier, 36, said. “I saw what his innings were compared to mine and the catches, and he is amazing at covering ground and how quick he can get from point A to point B and make catches a lot of other guys don’t even get close to, so Cubs fans, Cubs pitchers, they’re spoiled.”
“You want the ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ from the crowd, and when you have a skill set like his, it’s like, hey, please get the ball to me or in my area as much as possible and watch. He’s so good at finishing plays and making the 5-star catches and all the other plays in between.”
He still holds the most career Outs Above Average with 91. Only two other outfielders, Harrison Bader (77) and Byron Buxton (74), have more than 70 OAA; Crow-Armstrong sits at 59 OAA.
Kiermaier wryly admits with a laugh that the competitive part of him doesn’t want to say that Crow-Armstrong is a better defender.
“But he’s on a trajectory right now where his numbers are going to be off the charts,” Kiermaier said. “It’s his platform right now and he gets to paint whatever picture he chooses to.”
When Kiermaier roamed the outfield, he prayed that if the pitcher wasn’t going to strike out the batter that the ball be hit to him, particularly in a sacrifice-fly situation where it comes down to the outfielder to prevent the run from scoring. Kiermaier believes Crow-Armstrong possesses that same mentality, adding that’s half the battle.
“He has the mindset for it and then all the physical tools,” Kiermaier said. “I mean, elite across the board and everything he does, and much respect to him for the product that he puts out there on the field.
“His confidence is on a different level, and it should be for what he is as an overall player, but defensively, that’s where you know he is just special and then some. I can’t speak for him, but I guarantee that he is fearless out there.”
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Kiermaier built his major-league career around his defense.
Following his retirement after the 2024 season, he worked for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2025. He spent four days a week during spring training with their big-leaguers and minor-leaguers, then throughout the season spent time at a Blue Jays minor-league affiliate once a month. After that experience, Kiermaier wanted to expand his impact and use his defensive reputation to help outfielders with major-league organizations at any level. He was inspired to create the 3-9 Effect in the offseason to become an outfield consultant with the goal of instilling outfield throwing programs, understanding how to shag batting practice and more in an effort to revolutionize outfield defense.
“I knew how I was offensively and I needed people, I needed so much guidance on what to do offensively and I watch young outfielders and guys who nothing has clicked defensively for them,” Kiermaier said. “Let me show you how we think and how we do things, so I’m having fun with it.”
Crow-Armstrong and Kiermaier have exchanged texts over the years, and every now and then Kiermaier shoots off a “You’re unreal” and “These catches never cease to amaze me.” They’ve never met face to face, and Kiermaier hopes one day that can happen. Sometimes he will hear from his brother, Dan, the Cubs head groundskeeper, of how Crow-Armstrong reminds him of Kiermaier.
For now, he’s going to keep watching Crow-Armstrong pull off stellar plays in the outfield.
“PCA is unreal, and he’s going to be elite for years to come,” Kiermaier said. “I think we can have this conversation 10, 12 years down the road and I’ll say, boy, little did I know he was going to do this, this and that. He deserves all the praise and credit that he’s getting because there’s levels to this and he is the highest level out there.”