PCA, Bregman land more offseason accolades with All-MLB honors

CHICAGO – For much of this past season, the combination of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman in the Cubs’ lineup created a daunting task for opposing pitchers. Their production, especially down the stretch, helped Chicago feature the highest-scoring offense in baseball.

On Wednesday, both Cubs stars were rewarded for their work, earning a place within the All-MLB Team at the MLB Awards presented by MGM Rewards in Las Vegas. Crow-Armstrong was named to the First Team, along with outfielders Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres and Jackson Chourio of the Brewers, while Bregman earned a nod on the Second Team at third base, behind Rays star Junior Caminero.

Their place on the All-MLB Team comes after the duo each picked up a Gold Glove for their respective positions to begin this month’s awards season. Crow-Armstrong is also a finalist for the National League’s MVP Award, which will be announced during a 6 p.m. CT show on Thursday on MLB Network.

Crow-Armstrong led the Majors with 10.6 wins above replacement (per FanGraphs) this season and in the process became only the seventh player in MLB history to have at least 40 homers and 40 steals in one year. The center fielder tied with Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead in homers (45), while finishing second in the NL in stolen bases (41).

A major part of Crow-Armstrong’s offensive growth this season came via an improvement in plate discipline. He drew 83 walks this year after reaching via free pass just 53 times combined across the 2023-25 seasons. His +6.9% increase in walk rate (11.4% in ‘26 from 4.5% in ‘25) was the largest year-to-year jump among qualified MLB hitters.

Crow-Armstrong credited Bregman for playing a big part in that aspect of his development.

“I would really attribute my real start of this year to the one conversation with Breg about what I’m swinging at,” Crow-Armstrong said in September. “I credit the pitch-selection talk to the success.”

Bregman challenged Crow-Armstrong to focus on hunting a particular pitch in each at-bat, and the center fielder really focused on that task following a tough April. When the smoke cleared on his incredible season, Crow-Armstrong had a .372 on-base percentage to go with an NL-best .570 slugging and a .942 OPS. He collected 107 RBIs and paced the Majors in runs (119), extra-base hits (84) and total bases (357).

As for Bregman, the third baseman did not really catch fire at the plate until the second half of the season.

After the All-Star break, Crow-Armstrong led the Majors with 4.7 fWAR, but Bregman was tied for second with Tatis with 3.7 fWAR. Bregman logged a .695 OPS in 94 games before the break, but then turned in a 1.010 OPS in the second half. Four of his five multihomer games took place after the calendar flipped to August. Nineteen of his 28 homers overall came after the All-Star break.

Bregman ended up hitting .265 with an .819 OPS, plus 33 doubles, 93 RBIs, 92 runs scored and 76 walks in his first season in Chicago. He had a pair of three-homer games, including one with seven RBIs on Aug. 12 against the Nationals. And in Game 162 – a week after sustaining multiple facial fractures from a foul ball that hit him as he waited on-deck – Bregman had two homers in a four-hit game against the Red Sox.

“He struggled for a long time. And fans were all over him,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said after the season. “To be able to keep working, keep fighting through it, it’s a testament to a pretty tough person. To sort of fail in your first few months in a new city – he knew and knows the expectations that are put on him – and he just kept working and kept working.

“It was a good lesson, a good reminder for all of us: it’s a long season. And a player of that quality, he’s going to find a way to get it done. His second half was remarkable.”