How USA Baseball shaped Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong long before his first WBC

MESA, Ariz. – This spring will be Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s first World Baseball Classic, but it won’t be the first time he dons Team USA’s stars and stripes – not by a long shot. Crow-Armstrong has been in USA Baseball’s system since 12U. “I can look back 12 years ago, and I played with Paul Skenes before he was a pitcher,” Crow-Armstrong said in a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. “I played with Masyn Winn before he was a Gold Glove shortstop. Carson Tucker is still one of my best friends to this day, and we met on the USA team.”For Crow-Armstrong, this season will be about building off a breakout 2025 that had extreme highs and an extended low. But before that, he’ll get his first taste of the professional national team, on a roster stacked with MLB talent, including three Cubs: Crow-Armstrong, third baseman Alex Bregman and left-handed pitcher Matthew Boyd.This WBC, the United States is set to feature its best pitching staff ever, with Skenes and Tarik Skubal, reigning Cy Youngs, headlining a stacked rotation, and closer Mason Miller leading the bullpen. The position-player group features Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh, who finished first and second in the AL MVP race.Crow-Armstrong has vivid memories of his dad praising center fielder Byron Buxton, now a Team USA Teammate. “He is Mike Trout if he can stay healthy,” Matthew John Armstrong would say.“So the thought of me platooning with Byron Buxton is sort of hard to fathom,”…

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