Pete Crow-Armstrong Joins 35/35 Club, And The Much Rarer 40/40 Is In Reach

On Monday against the Brewers, Pete Crow-Armstrong stole bases 34 and 35 of the season in a 4-3 loss for the Cubs. While Chicago’s fans can’t be thrilled about taking the L against their rivals from Milwaukee, PCA’s thievery put him into rare territory: that second steal made Pete Crow-Armstrong just the 19th member of the 35 home run, 35 steals club. It’s the 25th such player season with at least 35 homers and 35 bags, as five players have pulled it off twice — Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds, Alfonso Soriano and Ronald Acuña Jr. — while Soriano actually managed it on three occasions, in 2002, 2003 and then 2006. Here is the complete list of 35/35 players and seasons: Crow-Armstrong was close to making it in 2025, when he hit 31 homers with 35 steals, but a second-half slump kept him from getting any closer: PCA batted .265/.302/.544 with 25 homers and 27 steals before the All-Star break in ‘25, but then hit a dismal .216/.262/.372 with just six more homers and eight more steals in the second half. While his 2026 started similarly slow, a switch flipped before May ended: on May 30, he went yard for the seventh time and pushed his OPS over .700 to stay, and has batted an absurd .316/.412/.707 since with 35 dingers and 23 steals. He’s now leading the National League in slugging percentage (.577) and OPS (.953), while his 41 homers put him second in the majors behind Phillies’ DH Kyle Schwarber, who has 43. Thanks to his defense, Crow-Armstrong is leading the majors in wins above replacement, and has a genuine shot at the National League MVP award thanks to not just his incredible play, but the fact that Dodgers’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani hasn’t pitched since July 3. The result of this sustained success — the likes of which PCA had never seen in his pro career before — is becoming a 35/35 player, which is a rarity unto itself. Even the 30/30 club isn’t a constant: there have been just 51 instances of a 30/30 season in MLB’s lengthy history, with 19 players managing the feat more than once — PCA being the most recent to do so. It follows that 35 homers and 35 steals is rarer than 30 of each, but rarer still is the 40/40 club. There are just six members of that one, and not one of them has repeated the trick. Pete Crow-Armstrong has 17 games left to get five steals to become the seventh 40/40 player in MLB history. Each of the players who have managed 40/40 seasons are also included in the 35/35 list above: José Canseco pulled it off in 1988 for the first time in MLB history; Barry Bonds followed in 1996 with the second 40-steal season of his career; Alex Rodriguez made it in 1998 with his only 40-steal season and first of what would be eight campaigns with at least 40 dingers; Alfonso Soriano, after a near miss in ‘02 when he fell one long ball short, got there in 2006; Ronald Acuña Jr. was three steals shy of 40/40 in 2019, but blew by the mark with 73 thefts in 2023; Shohei Ohtani didn’t just become the sixth member of the 40/40 club, but stands alone as the only 50/50 member thanks to 54 homers and 59 steals in 2024. PCA isn’t there yet, but he not only has the chance to join the 40/40 club, but could also have produced its best season to date. Shohei Ohtani’s wins above replacement in 2024 were 8.9 and 9.0, from FanGraphs and Baseball Reference, respectively — not playing the field, and not pitching, means he had no additional value beyond his admittedly exceptional offense. Acuña was worth 9.1 fWAR and 8.4 bWAR in ‘23, Soriano’s 2006 had him at just 5.4 and 6.1 — offensive levels were higher league-wide then — and Rodriguez posted 7.9 and a league-leading 8.5, respectively, in 1998, but it was also just the fifth-best season of his career by WAR. A-Rod had a pretty great career. Canseco in ‘88, well, he wasn’t exactly known for his defense, so as good as his bat was, he wrapped the year with a career-best 7.6 fWAR and 7.3 bWAR. Then there’s Barry Bonds in 1996. Bonds is basically the final boss of most offensive stats, so it makes sense that he’s the one player standing in Pete Crow-Armstrong’s way right now. Bonds produced 9.2 wins above replacement by FanGraphs’ calculations, but 9.9 via Baseball Reference — PCA, with 17 games left to go, is already ahead of Bonds in fWAR at 9.9, and real close in bWAR, at 9.5. If Crow-Armstrong is able to secure another five steals and pick up another bit of wins above replacement before the season ends, then it’s going to be easy to argue — at least from this particular point of view — that we just witnessed the best overall 40/40 season in MLB history. And if PCA falls just short of 40/40, or remains behind Bonds instead of ahead of him in both WAR calculations, well. This is still a ridiculous campaign worth remembering — at least he made it so far as 35/35, which is rare enough as it is.