Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong becomes seventh player in MLB history with a 40-40 season

Pete Crow-Armstrong became the seventh player in Major League Baseball history to achieve 40 home runs with 40 stolen bases in a single season during the Chicago Cubs' 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday.

With the win, the Cubs also clinched a berth in the postseason with one of the National League's wild-card playoff bids.

Crow-Armstrong got on a base with a leadoff walk on seven pitches against Miami Marlins starter Tyler Phillips . He took off for the milestone steal on Phillips' first pitch to the next batter, Seiya Suzuki .

The Cubs center fielder finished the day batting 1-for-3.

Crow-Armstrong came into Thursday's matchup versus the Marlins with 45 home runs, tied for the MLB lead. He reached the 40-homer mark on Sept. 6 , also against the Marlins with Phillips pitching. At the time, he had 33 steals with 18 games remaining in the regular season.

That made Crow-Armstrong the first player in Cubs history to register 40 homers and 30 steals in a season. And at 24 years old, he joined José Canseco (1988) and Alex Rodriguez (1998) in reaching those numbers during a season at age 24 or younger. Canseco won American League MVP honors the year he had his 40-40 season.

Crow-Armstrong is a virtual certainly to join Canseco with an MVP award to go with his 40-40 achievement. In addition to his MLB-leading 45 homers, he ranks fourth with 107 RBI and fifth in stolen bases, while leading the National League with a .951 OPS.

Including Thursday's game, Crow-Armstrong has stolen a base in three of his past four contests. Only four more games were left on the schedule, but he can go into the Cubs' final series before the postseason (three games versus the Boston Red Sox ) without having to chase down that 40th steal.

Preceding Crow-Armstrong in the 40-40 club were Shohei Ohtani (who posted a 50-50 season in 2023), Ronald Acuña Jr. (41-73, 2024), Alfonso Soriano (46-41, 2006), Rodriguez (42-46), Barry Bonds (42-40, 1996) and Canseco (42-40).

In Cubs franchise history, the fourth-year star became the second player with a 30-30 campaign (joining Sammy Sosa), having now done it for two consecutive seasons. Crow-Armstrong is also the only player in team history to hit 30-plus doubles along with 30 homers and 30 steals.

Additionally, he has the most homers by a left-handed batter (topping Billy Williams' 42 in 1970), and the seventh with 45 or more homers in a single season. The other Cubs sluggers to hit 45 or more homers are Ernie Banks (twice), Hack Wilson, Andre Dawson, Dave Kingman, Sosa (five times) and Derrek Lee.