Once again, Pittsburgh Pirates franchise icon Andrew McCutchen is a free agent, undoubtedly with many options to consider. There’s mutual interest in the 38-year-old right-handed hitter, who has no plans to retire, remaining with Pittsburgh. However, he’s still a force to be reckoned with at the plate and is sure to draw interest from many teams looking to boost their offense.
Former MVP Andrew McCutchen Feels There’s No Place Like Home, but May Have Other Options
In 2024, “Cutch” hit .232/.328/.411, 20 HR, and 50 RBI in 120 games. He thrived when he was installed in the leadoff spot of the batting order. In 81 games as the leadoff hitter, his OBP was .343. It could have been even higher. Although no statistics measure such a thing, it seemed he led all of baseball in bad called third strike calls. McCutchen served mostly as the designated hitter all season, except for five appearances in right field. That’s been about the norm for him the past three seasons. The idea behind it is to keep him healthy. However, he fought through much of July and August with a bad knee before leaving a game against the Seattle Mariners on August 16 and going on the injured list the next day. In addition to bad umpiring, the injury surely had a depressing effect on his statistics as well.
For his 16-year career, McCutchen has hit .273/.367/.462, 319 HR, and 1,095 RBI with 219 SB and a 49.3 WAR. The five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger was at his best in 2013. That’s when he hit .317/.404/.508, 21 HR, and 84 RBI with 27 SB and a National League-leading 7.8 WAR, taking home the NL Most Valuable Player Award. The following season, he led the NL with a .952 OPS.
Homeward Bound
When his numbers started to slide in 2016 and 2017, then-Pirates general manager Neal Huntington began to explore trade options concerning Andrew McCutchen. The thinking was that McCutchen would be too old by the time the Pirates were ready to make another run at the postseason. (Huntington was right. Pirates fans are still waiting for that postseason run. Wisely, Huntington never said how old Cutch would be.)
Thus, from 2018-22, McCutchen played for the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Brewers. When his deal with the Brewers expired, he decided it was time to come home. After the 2018 trade, McCutchen kept his home in Pittsburgh. His wife is a native of Dubois, a town 108 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. For McCutchen, a Florida native, Pittsburgh is home.
Where it all began pic.twitter.com/TmHG8yWbg1
— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) January 13, 2023
So, he contacted owner Bob Nutting about returning to the Pirates. McCutchen then returned to the Pirates on a one-year, $5 million deal for 2023, and re-upped under the same arrangement for 2024.
What to Expect
McCutchen is not the same player he was in his salad days. There’s been thought that simply donning the black and gold once again has rejuvenated him as a player. It makes for a nice story, but it’s not true. From 2018-22, McCutchen hit .242/.343/.423, averaging 17 HR and 55 RBI per season. Since returning to Pittsburgh, he’s hit .243/.352/.405 and averaged 16 HR and 47 RBI in the two seasons.
But he still has a lot to give. Among qualifying batters in 2024, i.e., those with at least 503 plate appearances, McCutchen was among the top three Pirates in batting, OBP, slugging, OPS+, home runs, and RBI. Of course, given the Pirates’ woeful offensive showing, that might be the equivalent of being among the top three oboists in Bismarck, North Dakota. Even so, that level of production is sure to garner other options for McCutchen and is of the type the Pirates can’t ignore. I could speculate on what those options might be, but I’d be wasting your time.
The guess here is that McCutchen will return to the Pirates in 2025 under a similar one-year deal as before. He wants to be back. The Pirates want him back. That includes Nutting, in a rare instance where he’s hands-on with the baseball operations. When was the last time you told your boss he couldn’t have something he wanted? As they did last year, given Cutch’s IL stint, the Pirates will want him to pass a physical before putting ink on a contract. Pirates fans and even McCutchen himself are anxious to get this done. But it’s only November. The Pirates signed him in January 2023 for the 2023 season and in December 2023 for the 2024 season. There’s no reason to doubt it will happen again. Getting it on paper is a mere formality.
Photo Credit: © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
