The Pirates are reportedly unlikely to trade center fielder Andrew McCutchen, whom they heavily shopped at last month’s Winter Meetings, but teams are still trying to acquire him, a major league source told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Toronto is the latest reported team to show interest in McCutchen, whom the Bucs are only willing to deal if they receive major league-ready talent in return. The 30-year-old is coming off the worst season of his career, having gone backward at the plate, in the field and on the base paths, but he still carries a resoundingly successful track record and an affordable contract (two years, $28.5MM, including a $14.5MM club option for 2018). Considering those factors, it’s not surprising that teams continue to pursue the longtime face of the Pittsburgh franchise.
More inside info from Cafardo:
- Free agent second baseman/third baseman Aaron Hill is on the radar of a few teams, and Atlanta and Kansas City could be among them, per Cafardo. Hill, 34, spent last season between Milwaukee and Boston, with which he combined to hit .262/.336/.378 with 10 home runs in 429 plate appearances. It’s debatable whether Hill would fit in Atlanta, which already seems to have a capable second base platoon on hand with Jace Peterson and Sean Rodriguez, not to mention a third baseman with a similar offensive profile to Hill in Adonis Garcia. Both Hill and Garcia have hit southpaw pitchers better than right-handers in their careers, so it might behoove Atlanta to instead find a lefty-swinging complement to Garcia. KC, meanwhile, already has multiple third base options – Mike Moustakas and Cheslor Cuthbert – and a few second base candidates in Whit Merrifield, Raul Mondesi, Christian Colon and Cuthbert.
- Speaking of the Braves and Royals, they are interested in free agent third baseman/first baseman Trevor Plouffe, who has been available since the Twins outrighted him in November. Boston and Oakland are also in on the 30-year-old Plouffe, a steady contributor from 2014-15 who batted an underwhelming .260/.303/.420 with 12 homers in 344 PAs last season. Like Hill, Plouffe has had more success versus lefties (.268/.344/.465) than righties (.239/.294/.403) during his career.
- To finish off a Royals-heavy set of notes, it’s still possible they’ll trade one of Moustakas, first baseman Eric Hosmer or outfielder Lorenzo Cain – all contract-year players – before the season, per Cafardo. A willingness to deal Moustakas or Hosmer, particularly the former, would somewhat explain Kansas City’s interest in Hill and Plouffe. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal previouly reported that Hosmer is unlikely to go anywhere prior to the season, though, and KC already subtracted a key outfielder Friday when it shipped Jarrod Dyson to Seattle. Speculatively, that could impact whether the Royals would also part with Cain, who’s due $11MM next season.
More Braves rumors that make zero sense. What’s new?
I would love Mcutch in Toronto, I just can’t see this FO trading any real prospects or the major league talent required to acquire him. These guys seem like they would be more likely to go after guys with bigger flaws (Bruce) who could probably be had for next to nothing.
Pirates would ask for Stroman or Sanchez. Still wanna do that?
No and neither would the FO. Im fine trading Stroman but I think you have to get more than Cutch
This is not an advertising thing, and McCutchen doesn’t get rave reviews in the OF or catcher
Is that a maple or composite bat you’re using while you beat that horse?
oh, a buzzkill, eh? all hail rave reviews.
Like everything, it’s funny in moderation and at appropriate times. Trying to shove it in to everything is just not funny and is very tired.
Be like Kyle’s mom! In moderation and at appropriate times, strostro.
Life is short. Just laufh at it. don’t take it so seriously.
Ok guys AddisonStreet doesn’t find the joke funny so it’s probably a good idea if we stop using it and from now on only joke in a way that pleases him
So you’re saying that trying to shove it into everything is tired?
Addison Street has officially O’Brien-ed the joke.
Jeff Blair is reporting that talks would have to start with Vladdy Guerro Jr.
McCutchen for Haap – just because I wanna see Pirates fans’ heads explode with rage.
I don’t blame the Bucs for trying to get as much as they can for Cutch, but obviously they are asking way too much, and that is why he still has not been moved
I think the Braves are looking to move Jace or Garcia. That’s the only thing that makes sense here. The stop-gap would give us enough time to get Albies/Demerrite ready.
Could see an Aaron Hill deal. I think Rodriguez will play multiple positions so he won’t be in a strict platoon so plenty of ABs for Hill and come July a contender may make a move for him. Makes perfect sense to me. I believe Rodriguez will be more of a 4th OF than a true platoon 2B
aaron hill is a perfect candidate for the mid season trade to the mets.
After virtually giving away Walker last year, a hometown boy, you would have people rioting in the streets if they were to again give away the team’s most popular player and only one that lives in the city.
Let the guy play until Meadows is ready. He’s earned that. And quit crying poor. Nutting is one of the ten richest owners in MLB.
See if you can swing a deal for Quintana via agreeable prospects but if not, pray your everyday players and pitchers stay healthy
the problem with just letting him play is that they potentially lose value from him having less control or if he continues to struggle. It’s obviously a gamble either way, since he could also rebound to be a 5 win player, but Pitt needs to explore all their options and take value when they can get it because despite their fans continuing to tell them to stop crying poor, they are.
I think if your the pirates you don’t move him unless you get what you want. Like you said it is very possible and kinda of expected that he will be a top 10 player again next year. Apparently he is one of the hardest workers in the game and has worked harder than ever this offseason but who knows. If he plays like he’s capable , he will be worth so much more at the deadline then they could dream of getting right now. If he plays bad(which isn’t that bad just bad compared to his usual output) they’re stuck with him on a pretty affordable contract
Well his bad is actually, rather bad. He was a 0.7 fwar player last year. Largely because his defense in cf is terrible. If he will stop forcing the pirate to play him in cf and take a move to a corner that could help.
I’m also not sure what working hard really has to do with anything. If he’s so hard working, you have to imagine he was last year too and was still bad. Additionally, I imagine the majority of MLB players are very hard working. That just seems like journalistic fluff.
It actually has a lot to do with success, if you’ve ever played at a higher level than college you would know. A lot of players admit that slacking a little in the offseason whether it in the gym or working on the mental part of the game (and yes mentally preparing is a big part of the offseason) that they break down during the season, whether it’s a bad start to the season that just won’t go away or physically not being able to keep up.
His defense was bad and has never really been that good but people (not saying you) act like he hit .230 9 hr and 40 RBI.
If that many players say that’s an issue, why don’t we see more struggle? Also, why don’t more just have a huge bounce back? Is 2016 cutch one of the few players who decided to get lazy? Why did a guy who is a hard worker all of a sudden decide to get lazy? Sorry, not buying it. You can feel free to believe in that, but I’m not.
Cutch had a 106 wrc+. That’s bad for a cf who is not just a negative, but a terrible cf. That’s down from a 146 from 2015. He was 40% worse offensively in 2016 then he was in 2015. So yeah, he didn’t have that line, but he still wasn’t a very good offensive player.
You don’t have to buy it considering you probably work a normal 9 to 5 and really don’t have much insight into professional baseball, I wouldn’t expect you do understand or know about it. Nobody ever said he was lazy. But it is possible to work HARDER to fix flaws in your game that were exposed more frequently. Not everyone can do it because not ever player is as talented as cutch.
While new saber numbers are a huge part of our game now, it’s not everything. Exit velo, K%, is he strike out on balls outside of the zone, bat speed, pitch recognition,average in balls in play. I don’t know what his are but stats like that really show whether he is going downwards offensively or if 2016 was just a fluke
The Indians just made someone who’d never played high school baseball their director of player development. I don’t think being around pro ball is as necessary as you think it is.
And if you don’t know what his foundational stats were in 2015, why not look them up.
I agree but I would throw Harrison into the Quintana deal if I could.
Pirate fans love to go on and on about Nutting being one of the ten richest owners in baseball. While that’s true, here’s the rest of the story…
He’s not the sole owner. The the majority owner in an ownership group. He needs the approval of the rest of the group to put his own money into the team. He’s asked for that approval in the past, but was denied because that would give him an even bigger ownership share.
Most would rather call BS on that and continue to paint him as a cartoon villain sitting on top of a pile of money Scrooge McDuck style. And you’ll certainly never hear anyone in the local media talk about it because “Cheap Nutting” is good for ratings/readership/clicks.
How rich the owner is matters zip. He isn’t going to take money out of his pocket to field a better team. This is a business and he must profit from it.
Valbuena would seem to be a better platoon partner with Garcia…adds pop too
How? Valbuena hits southpaws to the tune of .221/.310/.356. His RHP splits aren’t much better. His defense isn’t that much better than Garcia’s. Rodriguez had far superior splits vs. LHP in 2016 including .100 pts higher (OBP) and a .900 OPS. And he’s already signed.
Considering Jace Peterson has better splits than Valbuena, there’s not a fit here.
Why would Valbuena be the short side of the platoon? He hit RHP to a 129 wRC last year, far exceeding both Garcia (84) and Peterson (101).
There’s absolutely a fit for Valbuena to hit RHP in Atlanta. Heck he was even a little better than league average v LHP (104 wRC ), light years ahead of Jace Peterson’s 25 wRC v LHP.
If the Braves are gonna run with a platoon at 3rd than give it to Ruiz. Let him share time with Garcia. Rodriguez can play 2B, LF, RF little 3B and a little bit less SS.
I myself would love for them to go get Headley. Keep Ruiz in AAA and bring him up next year to share time with Headley and then take over full time in 2019.
I’d rather let Ruiz earn his way onto the roster, let him succeed at AAA.
I don’t see the attraction to Headley. I’d rather sign Valbuena.
It would have been nice to have Melancon for the last two months of the season, but having Felipe Rivero for the next 5 years is much better.
It would be nice to have McCutchen for the next two years, BUT….
The Pirates have to either cash in their chips while they still have value or else they will be picking in the top ten again soon.
It’s funny….if the Pirates had listened to all of the fans that insist the team “prove it wants to win” they would have let Melancon walk for nothing and would have traded Marte and Polanco for rentals.
They’d have nothing left and would be staring at 10 years of losing.
To “prove they want to win”.
BRO THEIR NOT PORE
I don’t understand why people bash on the front office tbh. Unless I’m missing something what terrible moves have they made?
I can count the bad moves NH has made on one hand.
Hiring John Russell.
The Bay trade.
Niese
The Liriano trade.
Otherwise, he’s turned a lot of chicken bleep into chicken salad.
I’m sure there are a few other bad moves not listed. But I totally agree with your point.
Also, kind of a stretch to call John Russell a bad move. There’s not a manager in the world that would’ve won with those rosters during the rebuilding years. They brought in the right guy by the time they were good enough to contend.
“Bro their not pore”???
Really? You never got past 3rd grade spelling?
woosh
Yes that’s more gooder
Bro, their not pore aight?
Let’s see. Oh, they gave away Walker for nothing. They threw two of their top 10 minors prospects to the Jays in the Liriano deal.
Most fans understood the Melancon trade. At least they didn’t throw in two prospects, as well
Worst owner in baseball and a guy who has a lot of fans fooled. Hey, order your ticket package and get that free water bottle
worst owner in baseball isn’t a valid complaint about the front office.
WIth the money they shed with trading Liriano, they were able tore-allocate the money and sign Daniel Hudson and Ivan Nova. Further, Ramirez and McGuire were/are borderline prospects. An OF who hits mostly singles with average defense and a stud defensive catcher with a no hit tool.
With regards to Neil Walker, they tried for over two years to sign hom to a long term deal. He wanted too much money and wwas unwilling to give them any kind of hometown discount.
You’re characterization of the Pirates ownership and FO is not entirely accurate.
Nor is the characterization that Pirates fans want Nutting to spend like the Yanks or Cubs. On the contrary, you had a window of opportunity for a championship and chose to dumpster dive yet again while using the convenient term of ‘small market,’ which sidesteps the issue of team profits and ownership worth. Instead of locking up pieces of the puzzle, the idea was and has been to dump salary while building young players or reclamation projects. Contending in this town means wild card and nothing more
Think they would of got a 1st round pick for Melancon
Every time I see the Braves linked to all these 10 homers a season utility type guys, I ask myself if they are just trying to get Kelly Johnson to call them first this time. “If we link ourselves to enough of these guys, Kelly will reach out to us this time with a decent contract offer”
Can this unrealistic Cards fan wishes a deal could be worked out sending Grichuk, Adams, and Jhonny Peralta to the Royals for Moustakas
Thats actually way too much to give up for moose.
It cut off. I intended to say Moustakas
and Cain. You have to spell out the word and instead of the symbol apparently
Since this is all about the Royals. Connor, does anyone know anything about Luke Hochevar?
Nothing new. There are still several good and healthy relievers out there, so he’s not exactly in demand. Interest should pick up later if Hochevar doesn’t hit a snag in his recovery from thoracic outlet surgery. He’s supposed to be OK by next month.
If the Pirates can get Vlad Jr for Cutch that would be awesome. He’s their top ranked prospect, but he’s only played in rookie ball. He could be ready to take over 3B in 2-3 years. I doubt the Jays would trade him, but if they’d be willing include him without adding any other high end pieces the Pirates should jump on if
I think the Blue Jays would be happy to exchange 17-year olds for players with McCutchen’s pedigree.
The Pirates can’t afford to liquidate assets like McCutchen and sit on them for years. They need big league ready contributors.
If I had to review the creativity of the average commenter on this site, the review would in fact, not be rave.
How would you grade your own grammar and syntax?
If the Cardinals are able to trade away two of their infield pieces.. it would be a nice pickup to bring in Plouffe as the backup 1st and 3rd basemen. He would definitely increase the power numbers along with Gyorko.
Yes, because power over OBP, defense, and speed certainly worked for them in ’16.
Since Tigers are not selling anymore, perhaps the Tigers should go after McCutchen?
Get a third team involved…
Tigers give up Norris (to Pittsburgh) and JD (to 3rd team) and get McCutchen.
The third team gives Pittsburgh a top prospect.