Tom Tango pointed out to me — and maybe you’ve seen this elsewhere — that Pete Crow-Armstrong is having a singular season. I’m using that word “singular” literally here — he is having a season unlike any in baseball history.
We can see this in Fangraphs advanced stats.
2026 offensive leaders (Runs Above Average):
Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs, 52.6
Yordan Álvarez, Astros, 51.4
James Wood, Nationals, 34.1
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers, 32.3
Randy Arozarena, Mariners, 31.3
And …
2026 defensive leaders (Runs Above Average):
Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs, 24.0
Bobby Witt Jr., Royals, 21.2
Dillon Dingler, Tigers, 19.3
Andrés Giménez, Blue Jays, 19.1
J.J. Wetherholt, Cardinals, 17.8
Yep, he’s leading all of baseball in both offense and defensive runs above average.
That has NEVER happened before.
Never. Not Honus Wagner. Not Willie Mays. Not Mike Schmidt. Not Cal Ripken Jr. Not Alex Rodriguez. Nobody has ever led all of baseball in Fangraphs offense AND Fangraphs defense in the same season. Of course, Fangraphs Runs Above Average is not the only way to measure offense or defense, so we are talking about a very specific thing. But it’s a fascinating very specific thing, and I spent all morning running through every season since 1901* and have learned an awful lot about the rarity of two-way players.
*I actually went through them TWICE since the first spreadsheet didn’t save. How can I still be so bad at technology?
TLDR version: There have been VERY VERY few dominant two-way players in baseball history.
And with that, let’s dive in:
