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The holidays are behind us and the unofficial start of baseball season is a little over a week away, at least for Chicago Cubs fans who are making the pilgrimage to Cubs Convention at the Sheraton next weekend.
That means players will start reporting to camp in a month or so and preseason rankings are coming in hot. MLB Network got its annual positional rankings underway this week, starting in center field, in which Cubs rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong was notably absent.
Thoughts on The Shredder’s #Top10RightNow list at center field? pic.twitter.com/cYNoGvWMtl
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 8, 2025
Crow-Armstrong's 2024 season was more a tale of two halves than one of consistent success, but he closed the year out on a high note, slashing .284/.337/.466 over the final two months, good for a 122 wRC+. Pair that with his elite defensive work (98th percentile in OAA (Outs Above Average) and Arm Value, 96th percentile in Arm Strength, according to Baseball Savant, and you have the makings of a star.
Even if you look at the bigger picture and take into account his early-season struggles at the plate, it's clear Crow-Armstrong is a safer bet in center field than, at the very least, the man who closed out the top 10 list in White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr., who battled injuries in 2024 and looked like a shell of the player who earned an All-Star selection and won a Silver Slugger the year prior.
The fan vote gave much more love to the Cubs rookie, placing him fifth in center field rankings heading into 2025, trailing some of the game's biggest names including NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill, Mike Trout, Michael Harris II and Julio Rodriguez. I'm not even saying he's put up the numbers to be a consensus top-5 pick, but his value is plain to anyone who's watched him play.
Here's how you voted for the top center fielders heading into 2025 on social media!
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 7, 2025
See who cracks our #Top10RightNow Tuesday at 8pm ET on MLB Network. pic.twitter.com/HHqUWQkJfP
In 2024, Crow-Armstrong ranked ninth among MLB center fielders in fWAR (2.6), despite playing only 112 games. Granted, a lot of that value came from his baserunning and fielding, but production is production. He'll head into spring training next month knowing he's the team's starting center fielder - a luxury he didn't have last year with Cody Bellinger on the roster. Now, he'll be tasked with being a spark plug for a team with its eye on returning to postseason baseball and proving he belongs with the best center fielders in the game today.