LOS ANGELES – An invitation to the All-Star Futures Game has punctuated Cubs outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong’s strong start to the season. Major League Baseball announced the rosters on Thursday.
“I think he is a future star,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “Happy for him. Anytime we get guys to get to go and perform on that stage, I think that’s a great opportunity.”
In many ways, Crow-Armstrong is a fitting representative for the Cubs and their hopes for the future. Crow-Armstrong, 20, was one of the promising teenage prospects the Cubs added through trades over the past couple years, as they sent out ace Yu Darvish and dismantled their last championship core.
The Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong, who the Mets selected in the first round of the 2020 draft, in a trade for Javy Báez, Trevor Williams and cash last summer.
‘‘Never would have expected that at all,’’ Crow-Armstrong told the Sun-Times this spring, noting that Báez was a player he gravitated toward as Crow-Armstrong’s Naperville-native father, actor Matthew John Armstrong, fostered his Cubs fandom. ‘‘I couldn’t have drawn that up.’’
Crow-Armstrong was recovering from surgery on his right (non-throwing) shoulder at the time of the trade. He was cleared to hit in November and took advantage of an invitation to the Cubs’ new offseason prospect camp.
“It was huge,” he said of the camp schedule. “I got to come [to Arizona], and I had a lot of freedom, but I also had a lot of guidance.”
The camp, a more robust program than the Cubs have had in years past, can be seen as a continuation of a player-development overhaul that began a few years ago. And the club is counting on its farm system to make good on its promise of sustained success from that “next great Cubs team” club officials keep talking about.
For Crow-Armstrong, the offseason camp gave him a chance to bond with other top Cubs prospects and had him fully cleared to play by the spring.
Crow-Armstrong, 20, began this season with Low-A Myrtle Beach, but a .354/.443/.557 slash line through the first month and a half helped him earn a promotion to High-A South Bend to start the month of June.
“He makes good swing decisions,” Cubs vice president of player development Jared Banner told the Sun-Times last month, “He has great bat-to-ball skills. He has a very quick bat that generates a good amount of power. So, he has a lot of the ingredients we look for in hitters.”
A bruised hand, which affected his swing, sidelined Crow-Armstrong for two weeks last month, but he’s recorded two three-plus hit games since returning.
Now Armstrong, a Sherman Oaks native, is slated to return to his home town to play the Futures Game at Dodger Stadium. He probably couldn’t have drawn up that chapter of his story either.
Contreras nearing return
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was out of the lineup for the third straight game on Thursday, but Ross confirmed that Contreras could return during this four-game series against the Dodgers.
