Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Which version of Pete Crow-Armstrong will we see in 2026?

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Marshall Harris and Russ Dorsey discussed the biggest Cubs storylines to watch for the 2026 season.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. Could you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing? And saying bleep the Packers. Come on, guys, good better best. Never let it rest. Never let rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score.

The 2-2. Check swing, strike three call. What a job by Horton striking out the numbers three and four hitters. Reynolds and Cruz. You know the voice. Get familiar if you forgot. That's Pat Hughes, right here on 1043, the score.

And this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Russell Dorsey and alongside Marshall Harris here on this President's Day, getting you through the next four hours. And Kate Horton's strikeouts, I remember that from the regular season, postseason, not so much. And Russell Dorsey has been so kind

to lend us his baseball expertise. He's the Yahoo National Insider, talking all things MLB. And Russ came to me and said, hey, I got something I want to talk about. And he didn't bring his chef's hat with him because if he had it, I'd say, put the chef's hat on. It's time for him to cook. I am simply the sous chef. Russ is going to run the joint for the next two segments because he has the storylines that are cooking for the Cubs and the White Sox. This segment, we will talk Cubs.

Russ, you think there's three big things that we should all be paying attention to? down in Mesa. Yeah. So we get in this time of year, and we talk about this a little bit in transition. You get past Valentine's Day, oh, man, it's about that time. It's warming up here in the city,

and you're just getting that itch for some baseball. That's where I'm at. And so when I'm thinking about the Cubs and the White Sox, and right now we're going to start with the Cubs, number one storyline going into 2026 for me. Which version of Pete Crowe Armstrong will we see? We saw the All-Star MVP caliber first half from Pete Crow Armstrong. First half had an 847 OPS, 25 homers.

You saw a guy Marshall Harris that was taking baseball by storm. He was cool, started the season with the blue hair, making plays all around the yard at Wrigley Field. Top two defensive centerfielder in the game of baseball. Him and Sadan, Raphaela, in Boston, our boss. both amazing, won a gold glove last year, deservedly so. And you saw a guy where you're like, man, this is the type of dude you build around. And then the second half got there. And you did not see the same Pete Crow Armstrong.

OPS 634 with six homers. And a very young player still. Overall, a very solid season. Over 90 runs scored, over 90 RBIs, had over 30 RBIs, had over 30. home runs, amazing defense in center field. That's a very, very high quality season from Pete Kroh Armstrong, even though where the Cubs were, the second half wasn't great.

That carried over into the postseason for Pete as well. My eye is on which version of Pete do you get in 26? Because if you can get, we'll call it 65%, even 70% of the first half, Pete Kro Armstrong, offensively with that same high-quality defense that we saw from him since he's gotten to the big leagues, to be honest, then you still have a high-quality player. So you want, let's say, a two-thirds version of the first half of PCA for the entirety of the season.

I think that's fair. The consistency level. So if I'm doing the math correctly, at that rate, he would be a guy who hits, let's say 30 home runs. And he would be a guy who steals, let's say 40 bags. And maybe the peripherals are higher. Maybe an on-base percentage over 300? Because his on-base was below 300.

Yes. And we talked about it a lot last year. And the slug was 481. So maybe this is what we're thinking. A guy who hits 30 home runs, steals 40 bases, a batting average above 250. An on base above 300, a slug of, I'm going to say 475, and an OPS above 800. Is that a formula that works for you?

I think that's fair. What I have written down is, because I think swing and misses is going to be part of his game, and I know that's the area that he's working hard to improve. What I have written down is 250 to 270 batting average. 315 to 330 on base That might be a little high but keep going And I'm just saying that's your target That's what you would hope for

And then 425 to 475 Slug Because I think a lot of It's really hard to hit for big time power As a left-handed hitter at Wrigley Field And The fact that he had 31 homers As a left-handed hitter

That's big time That means that's in there and because of the division the Cubs playing, he's going to have opportunities to hit homers as a left-handed hitter. I don't think you have to, for the Cubs to be the team they want to be, he doesn't have to hit 40 homers. Oh, no, no, that's not even in my... And I think I'm trying to be fair and be realistic with Pete say,

hey, if he hits 25 and still does all the other things, you still have a really good player. 40 doubles, that should be a benchmark for him. Because I think that's something that he can, with his sense, speed and you got in some of those balls that don't leave the yard but hit off the wall they're going to turn in doubles some of those are going to turn into triples and those things are still very important and then stealing between 30 and 40 back let me tell you something if pique armstrong hits 40 home runs and has an on base percentage above 300 that that means that the cubs are having

an exceptional seat i don't even like saying 40 home runs because i i want people to know how hard. There's only been one player in the history of the Chicago Cubs as a left-hand hitter to hit 40 homers. Billy Williams. It's really hard to do. No, I think that's fair. Okay, so we're keeping our eye on Pete Armstrong. What is storyline

number two? Storyline number two is what I believe is the strength of the Chicago Cubs, and I think that's their starting pitching, because I think what they've been able to do is build depth, and that was the thing that they didn't really have in 2025.

And when I look at the Cubs and how they're going to have success in their starting rotation, I think they're going to borrow from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, the Dodgers have a little bit more high caliber talent, but the process is the same. The Dodgers have all those guys, Shohay, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Blake Snell, et cetera. And you look at their roster, and it's like, man, they have like eight, nine starting pitches. who are you going to give the ball to? And there's this idea of like, everybody doesn't have to make 30 starts.

So my mindset, when I'm looking at the Cubs roster, is like, okay, the guy, there's different tier. So the 20 to, let's call it 30 start tier, to me, James and Tyone, Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, Shoddy, Minaga. Those are your guys that are going to have between 20 and 30 starts in 2026, right? So if, let's say all five of those guys got 20, 25 starts, you say, okay, we're cooking here.

And that leaves you a little bit margin for air. If a guy goes on the IEL, we know it's a grind to get through 162. Then the next tier is that 10 to 15 start range, where you have a guy like Justin Steele coming back off of elbow surgery. You're not going to rush him back, but that gives him some time to really build things up going into second half, Colin Ray. you're a guy who's always known to make some spot starts here and there. Then Ben Brown, Javier Satt. Then the five to 10 start range, guy like a Jordan Wicks,

maybe Jackson Wiggins comes up, gives you a couple starts, somebody goes down. And that's how you get yourself through 162. But that leaves you room for error. That leaves you room for if a guy goes down. You know, it's really hard to get through a year and a guy doesn't go down with injury, elbows, shoulders, etc. And so I think with what they've been able to do,

they've put themselves in a really solid position to have some overlap. Marshall Harris and Russell Dorsey talking you through the three biggest storylines for the Cubs. Number one, what version of PCA will we get in 2026? We'll be closer to the first half. We'll be closer to the second half. And number two, the starting rotation should be a strength of this team if people can stay healthy. course, if you had gotten Zach Gallen, it really, really, really would be a strength of this team, but Zach Gallen opting to stay with the Arizona Diamondbacks signing a one-year deal

and the Cubs unable to get him in the fold. Now, on a number three, and this one was intriguing to me. Yeah, this was, I was just looking for like a different fun one, maybe someone people aren't necessarily thinking about. Another, going back to Say a Suzuki full-time in right field, I'm very interested. Because last year, you could make the case the Cubs had the best defense. offensive outfield in the big leagues with Ian Hap, Peker Armstrong, Kyle Tucker. You remove Kyle Tucker from that equation, you re-insert Sayas Suzuki.

They're still a very good outfield with PCA and Ian Hap. And their infield is going to be great defensively with Alex Bregman, Danzy Swanson, Nika Horner, and Michael Bush. But we've seen some things from Sayas Suzuki in the past in the outfield where you're like, man, this is probably a designated hitter. but you brought to my attention some of those numbers and they are, there's a stark contrast. Do you want to give them to the people?

There's a real reason why the idea of Sayas Suzuki playing right field versus just de-hing is beneficial to himself and by virtue of that, the Cubs. Here are the numbers when Sayas Suzuki d-hed in 102 games last year and had 444 plate appearances. He had a 232 back. batting average, a 322 on base, and a 423 slug. Now, that batting average is a little low.

He hit 16 home runs in those 444 at bats, and the OPS was 745, which isn't terrible, but it's certainly not what you were paying for when you signed Sayas Suzuki to his five-year contract. Now, as a right fielder in 32 games, you mentioned Kyle Tucker being out, so he was back out in right field, 13 home runs in 32 games, 34 runs driven in. in 32 games. 22 runs scored in 32 games. And the splits are crazy.

A 304 batting average, a 360 on base, and a 664 slug. That's an OPS over 1,000. Say Suzuki, since he's gotten to the Chicago Cubs, he is that type of player where it's big time impact

when he gets on a run. Like they've had stretches over the last couple of years where, and I know last year he had some struggles and to turn it on later in the season. After the hot first half, he has some times where he'll go for a three-week stretch where it's like an 1,100 OPS and he'll carry the lineup. And so if Sayas Suzuki can have an 875 OPS season with Alex Bregman in that lineup.

And like, I know that's, I don't think that's a big ask when you look at what he's been able to do. like that's a guy that should hit 20 that's one I'm confident to say that should be 25 and 30 homers 875 OPS would be a career high the highest he's ever done was two years ago in 20204 when he had 848 OPS 842 the year before that so consistent before he fell off when he was deaching this past season so maybe he comes up with something remember he's entering his age 31 season last year of his deal. I'll be interested to see what he does in a contract year and whether he's trying to play more to go get big money here or maybe go back to Japan because that's something that guys do sometimes. So it's going to be interesting to follow all three of those storylines. Recapping with

Russell Dorsey who has his chef's hat on. Number one, we're looking at PCA. Number two, the starting depth of the Chicago Cubs and number three, Sayas Suzuki back in right field. We're going to do the same thing, but with the team on the south side, top three storylines for the White Sox with Russell Dorsey. I'm Marshall Harris. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 1043, The Score.