CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong has agreed to a $115 million, six-year contract with the Chicago Cubs, according to a person familiar with the deal, establishing the All-Star center fielder as one of the franchise's core players.
The person spoke to the AP on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been announced.
The contract starts in 2027. There are escalators that could increase the value to as much as $133 million, and it also includes an assignment bonus if Crow-Armstrong is traded. It's the biggest contract ever with no club options for a player with five years of financial control left at the time of signing.
Crow-Armstrong, who turns 24 on Wednesday, is coming off a breakout performance. He hit .247 with 31 homers, 95 RBIs and 35 steals last season, helping the Cubs earn an NL wild card for the team's first playoff appearance since 2020.
Crow-Armstrong also covers a ton of ground in the outfield for one of baseball's best defensive teams. The Southern California native won his first Gold Glove last year.
Crow-Armstrong was selected by the New York Mets in the first round of the 2020 amateur draft. He was traded to the Cubs in the Javier Báez deal in July 2021.
He made his major league debut in 2023, going 0 for 14 in 13 games. He had a rough June in his second season before finding his form. He batted .289 with seven homers and 30 RBIs in his last 57 games in 2024.
Crow-Armstrong put together a fast start last year, hearing chants of “M-V-P!” at Wrigley Field while hitting .272 with 21 homers and 61 RBIs in his first 80 games. But he faded down the stretch, batting just .192 and striking out 33 times in his last 35 games in the regular season.
Making his first appearance in the playoffs, he hit .185 (5 for 27) in eight games as the Cubs advanced to the second round before they were eliminated by the Milwaukee Brewers in an NL Division Series.
“I think it’s a season that you would kind of expect from Pete. That’s Pete,” manager Craig Counsell said during the winter meetings in December. "It’s like we saw some incredible things. We saw some stretches where he was an out at the plate. I think his defense was incredibly consistent and brilliant throughout the season.
“And I think really the goal is to just -- it’s just to keep improving. ... That’s what I’d want from Pete. And as long as that quest never burns out and you keep that alive, he’s going to get to better places and great places.”
Crow-Armstrong's preparation for this season including playing for Team USA during the World Baseball Classic. He is hitting .100 (2 for 20) in eight spring training games with the Cubs.
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New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) makes a catch at first base to get Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong out during the third inning of a spring training baseball game, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s election Tuesday ended in an indecisive result that left the prime minister’s future unclear, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump ’s ambitions toward Greenland.
Official results showed that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s center-left Social Democrats lost ground compared with the last election in 2022, as did her two partners in the outgoing government.
Neither left-leaning nor right-leaning blocs won a majority in parliament. That left experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen — a former prime minister — in the role of kingmaker.
His centrist Moderate party is in a position to determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country of some 6 million people.
Løkke Rasmussen called on rivals on the left and right to climb down from some of the positions they staked out in the campaign, and “come and play with us.”
Denmark “is a small country of 6 million people in a world of 8 billion, which is in upheaval — and there is war in Iran, and there is war in Ukraine,” he said. He argued that “We are one tribe. We must come together. We must not be divided.”
But Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, a center-right challenger to Frederiksen, made clear that he doesn’t intend to go into government with her Social Democrats again.
The Social Democrats remained the biggest single party, but with 21.9% of the vote -- well below the 27.5% they took in the 2022 election.
The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.
Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump’s push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters. Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
Moulson reported from Berlin. James Brooks in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.
Members of the conservative liberal Venstre party react after the General Election in the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Leader of the Conservative People's Party, Mona Juul, arrives at an election party after the parliamentary election at Tietgen's House, in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Claus Bech/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Lars Loekke Rasmussen, Denmark's Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Moderates, casts his vote in the parliamentary election, in Graested, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Keld Navntoft/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Chairman of Liberal Alliance Alex Vanopslagh speaks at the election party after the parliamentary elections, at Moltkes Palae, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Nils Meilvang/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Denmark's Prime Minister and The Social Democrats' leader Mette Frederiksen meets Greenlandic voters on election day in Aalborg, Denmark, Tuesday March 24, 2026. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Ballots will be sorted at the end of the general election in Aalborg, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Danish Prime Minister and Leader of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen meets voters at a rally in her support in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Jacob Engel Schmidt from the Moderates reacts to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Rasmus Flindt Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Members of The Social Democrats react to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Leader of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen, center left, and leader of the Danish People's Party Morten Messerschmidt , center, right, speak during TV2's party leader debate 'The Last Answer' in the Common Hall at Christiansborg, in Copenhagen, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
A person exits a polling booth at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A man casts a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A woman holds a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
People line up to receive their ballots at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
FILE - Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of European Union defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos, File)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Pia Olsen Dyhr, left, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, right, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
