Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong set to benefit from league-leading 3.96 MPH change
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Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong set to benefit from league-leading 3.96 MPH change originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Pete Crow-Armstrong is leading Major League Baseball in one fascinating statistic.
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The Chicago Cubs' centerfielder has increased his bat speed more than any other player in MLB.
Last season, PCA swung the bat at 72.25 miles per hour.
This season so far, Crow-Armstrong has his bat swinging at 76.21 miles per hour.
Bat Speed Increasers
— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) March 30, 2026
Just 2-3 games played for each guy, but bat speed stabilizes very, very quickly. Here is everybody swinging it at least 2mph faster this season pic.twitter.com/zEFO1cREt9
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As Anderson writes, this is a stat that doesn't have too much noise for too long. Usually, a guy swinging faster this early continues to swing faster as the season goes along.
Bat speed isn't everything, but it does matter. Some of the league's top contact hitters (Luis Arraez, Steven Kwan) have some of the slowest bat speeds. Some of the top power hitters (Giancarlo Stanton, Junior Caminero) lead in bat speed.
Crow-Armstrong has improved in a way that should, if his mechanics stay clean, lead to even more power than he had last season in a 30-30 campaign.
It's also a positive development this early in Crow-Armstrong's career. This is just his second full MLB season, and third season in the majors at all, and he seems to have set out to make this improvement. That's a good sign, and the Cubs will hope it pays off.
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