The trade deadline that blindsided Pete Crow-Armstrong (2024)

Three years after dismantling their roster at the trade deadline, the Chicago Cubs are back in sell mode, fielding inquiries on pitchers such as Jameson Taillon and Mark Leiter Jr., gauging the value of core players like Nico ho*rner, and insisting they still intend to compete in 2025.

There are many reasons the Cubs are a last-place team. Injuries depleted the pitching staff. Craig Counsell hasn’t made a huge difference in one-run games. The bullpen took too long to jell. Big-money players such as Dansby Swanson and Cody Bellinger have been disappointments. The offense was essentially the worst in the majors for about two months. Even president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer recently described the lineup as “shallow.”

But this transaction window is a reminder of the missed opportunity on July 30, 2021.

Pete Crow-Armstrong was planning on a nice lunch that day with his parents, his CAA agent and one of his best friends from high school when he got blindsided by the trade deadline. They all happened to be in Florida on that day off from his rehab program. He hadn’t heard any rumors because he was still recovering from shoulder surgery and barely a year removed from being a first-round pick of the New York Mets. His life would be immeasurably changed.

Crow-Armstrong became the guy traded for Javier Báez.

“I probably put a little too much weight on that,” Crow-Armstrong said. “But how could I not? That’s what everybody was kind of talking about. And I helped fuel the fire, for sure, by letting people know that he was my favorite player to watch.”

At this point, Crow-Armstrong represents the organization’s best chance to salvage the frenzied period when Hoyer traded Báez, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel as part of a series of eight deals with seven teams in 16 days. In Hoyer’s mind, moving on from the stars of the 2016 World Series team was a difficult but necessary decision. Báez and Bryant, in particular, have not performed since getting their big contracts as free agents.

But if 2024 was going to be a breakthrough year, the Cubs needed more from the 12 players they acquired during that trading cycle three years ago.

Kevin Alcántara, the 6-foot-6 center fielder the New York Yankees packaged in the Rizzo deal, recently turned 22 and still has an enormous ceiling to go with what’s been a solid season at Double-A Tennessee.

There’s also time to re-evaluate the Bryant trade with the San Francisco Giants if Caleb Kilian comes back as a reliever and Alexander Canario gets healthy and gets consistent playing time at Wrigley Field. But neither scenario has happened yet, and it seems both players are running out of chances.

The Cubs went for young players with major-league experience in the Kimbrel trade with the Chicago White Sox, but Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer could not stay healthy and productive, and they did not establish themselves on the North Side.

Trading Andrew Chafin to the Oakland Athletics looked like it might yield a hard-throwing reliever, though Daniel Palencia’s flashes of potential have not equaled a reliable major-league pitcher yet. The smaller deals involving players like Joc Pederson and Ryan Tepera were long shots to succeed, but a rebuilding team needs some good fortune.

There does not appear to be another Kyle Hendricks — who was an unheralded A-ball pitcher when he was acquired at the 2012 deadline — emerging from this group.

That leaves Crow-Armstrong, 22, who has the full backing of Hoyer and Counsell during this challenging rookie year. Crow-Armstrong is an exceptionally gifted center fielder (11 defensive runs saved) and an undisciplined hitter (.531 OPS) still refining his approach. His offensive struggles wouldn’t be as noticeable if he was the No. 9 hitter in a good lineup. His elite defense at a premium position on a minimum salary can be enormously valuable.

If Steve Cohen had more experience owning a major-league franchise back then, or if David Stearns was running baseball operations in New York at the time, Crow-Armstrong might be the Mets’ center fielder right now.

“I get it now,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It showed me that anything can happen. It showed me that winning is the most important thing. It showed me that people do what they can to win now. But it also showed me a different part of the process where you go to an organization that’s more into the development of players at that time. I don’t know, man. It’s funny how it works.”

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Patrick Mooney is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. He spent eight seasons covering the Cubs across multiple platforms for NBC Sports Chicago/Comcast SportsNet, beginning in 2010. He has been a frequent contributor to MLB Network, Baseball America, MLB.com and the Chicago Sun-Times News Group. Follow Patrick on Twitter @PJ_Mooney