PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen arrived with the Pirates as a 22-year-old middle fielder with greater than a decade of MLB seasons forward of him. He helped the Pirates creator the sorts of dominant common seasons and postseason victories that the group hadn’t seen in a few a long time.
Now, at 37, McCutchen is in a unique place. He’s solely performed three video games in middle discipline over the previous 4 seasons and was used nearly completely as a DH final season. The dialog has shifted from “Will he be one of many Pirates’ greats?” to “How for much longer will we get to look at this franchise icon?”
Properly, a minimum of for another season. The Pirates introduced on Wednesday they signed McCutchen to a one-year contract, extending his return tour in Pittsburgh for an additional season. However don’t be fooled: There’s an enormous distinction between a return tour and a farewell tour.
“I really feel like I can play a minimum of two extra [years]. A minimum of two extra,” McCutchen mentioned. “If that occurs and subsequent 12 months rolls round, I make up in my thoughts that I will in all probability be executed then, I will say that. I do not know. I attempt to not placed on an excessive amount of stress and attempt to exit and luxuriate in myself as a lot as I can, play in addition to I can, as a result of I accomplish that a lot better after I’m simply on the market having fun with it.”
McCutchen understands he’s in a unique scenario than he was in his first stint in Pittsburgh. However there are nonetheless a hanging variety of similarities.
In his 2013 NL MVP season, when he hit .317 with a .911 OPS, McCutchen took practically all of his at-bats out of the No. 3 spot within the order. In ‘23, all however six of his 390 at-bats in 2023 got here within the prime three spots within the batting order, together with 263 within the coveted No. 3 spot, because of his capacity to get on base at a excessive clip.
In actual fact, McCutchen’s .378 on-base share final season is just one level decrease (.379) than his on-base share between 2009-17 in his adolescence with the Pirates.
“Let’s be sincere: The place I’m and the state of baseball, too, having a 37-year-old middle-of-the-order bat is unparalleled, actually,” McCutchen mentioned. “To be at a spot and ready the place [GM Ben Cherington] feels that [works] … it speaks volumes.”
And Cherington mentioned McCutchen could have each alternative this spring to earn reps within the outfield he roamed for therefore a few years at PNC Park.
“We don’t wish to put any limitations on it proper now. If it is smart for him and the workforce to play some outfield subsequent 12 months, we actually wish to maintain that risk open,” Cherington mentioned. “There’s in all probability some profit to the workforce if that may occur.”
“I do assume I can nonetheless assist on the market and I plan to proceed to assist on the market,” McCutchen mentioned. “If we are able to maintain Bryan Reynolds contemporary and off his toes, and I might be the man to step in and get him off of his toes and maintain his bat within the lineup, then that’s what I wish to do.”
However McCutchen can also be in an analogous scenario to his early years in one other sense. The drought may not be so long as when he first arrived, however the Pirates are hoping they’re nearing a window of postseason rivalry for the primary time since 2018.
The Pirates added Marco Gonzales and can quickly add Martín Pérez to their beginning rotation to enhance 2023 All-Star starter Mitch Keller, and it appears like Cherington isn’t executed searching for assist there. The bullpen has the most effective closers within the sport in David Bednar in addition to younger breakout setup pitchers in Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski.
The offense figures to be boosted by the additions of Rowdy Tellez and Edward Olivares. And McCutchen, the important thing piece of the Bucs’ lone playoff window to date within the 2000s, believes that the lineup has had sufficient “seasoning” on the Main League stage.
Now, it’s time to show itself. No excuses.
“I really feel just like the Pirates have been below this window of growth and rebuild. … I believe we’re in a spot now the place that is out the window,” McCutchen mentioned. “There are modifications and issues that should be executed. We should be in a spot the place we are able to win. Improvement and rebuild’s out of the window now.”
The time is now for McCutchen. He’s made it clear that he wouldn’t relatively have this chance wherever apart from Pittsburgh, the town the place he grew to become a face of baseball in a sports-crazed area. He’ll have a minimum of another 12 months to make it occur — if not two, or extra.
“I really feel like that is my closing cease,” McCutchen mentioned. “I don’t wish to go wherever else.”
