While Andrew McCutchen is a few weeks from free agency, it seems inevitable that he’ll re-sign with the Pirates. The franchise legend has made clear on multiple occasions that he intends to finish his career in Pittsburgh. The Bucs have reciprocated that interest.
Comments this week from both McCutchen and general manager Ben Cherington point toward the former MVP eventually returning for a 12th season. In June, the 37-year-old told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he planned to continue playing. McCutchen restated those intentions in a chat with the beat on Tuesday (link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). This morning, Cherington confirmed the Pirates hope to keep him around.
“He’s proving again this year that he can hit and hit at a level that helps us win games,” the GM told reporters (link via Noah Hiles of the Post-Gazette). “I would just repeat what I said before. We would love to find a way for Andrew to finish his career in a Pirates uniform. Glad he feels good, feels like he can still do that and still play. As I did last year, as we get to the end of the season, we’ll have a conversation with Andrew after the season’s over.”
This is indeed how things played out last fall. McCutchen had returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year deal over the 2022-23 offseason. In early October, Cherington said the sides would talk about a new contract over the winter. It took until December, but the parties eventually hammered out a $5MM deal for 2024.
As he did in 2023, Cutch has performed well offensively. He’s reached the 20-homer threshold for the first time in three seasons. He’s hitting .241/.338/.432 in 470 plate appearances. His strikeout and walk rates have each gone in the wrong direction, but he’s hitting for more power than he did last season.
By measure of wRC+, McCutchen has been 14 percentage points above league average offensively for a second straight year. That’s second on the team behind Bryan Reynolds among those with 300+ plate appearances. Reynolds, McCutchen, Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart (the latter of whom has 232 PAs) have been the only above-average hitters in the Pittsburgh lineup.
The five-time All-Star is almost exclusively a designated hitter. McCutchen has started two games in right field. His 102 other appearances have come as a DH. That limits the team’s flexibility. McCutchen is fifth in MLB in plate appearances as a designated hitter. The four players ahead of him — Shohei Ohtani, Marcell Ozuna, Kyle Schwarber and Brent Rooker — have each hit 30+ homers. McCutchen isn’t going to provide that level of production at this stage of his career, but he’s still one of the more potent bats in a Pittsburgh lineup that needs to be more effective. There’s a simple case for bringing him back even before considering McCutchen’s locker room presence and his iconic status within the organization.
It’d likely be another one-year deal. McCutchen has signed for $5MM in each of the last two offseasons. He’d be justified in seeking a modest pay bump this time around. When he signed after the 2022 season, he was coming off the only below-average offensive showing of his career. He’d bounced back last year, but the reunion was cut short by a partial tear of his left Achilles in September. He’s trending towards a healthy finish in 2024. That could push his salary up by a couple million dollars, though it’s fair to assume he’s more concerned with staying in Pittsburgh than he is about maximizing his earning power.