Andrew McCutchen

Pirates Re-Sign Andrew McCutchen

By Nick Deeds | December 23, 2024 at 1:12pm CDT

1:12pm: The Pirates have officially announced the deal.

9:05am: The Pirates are in agreement with veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen, per the team’s social media account. The deal came together this morning. MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Andrew Destin were the first to report the terms of the contract: it’s a one-year deal that guarantees McCutchen $5MM.

McCutchen, 38, returns to Pittsburgh for his 12th season with the club and 17th season in the majors. Selected by the Pirates eleventh overall in the 2005 draft, McCutchen debuted with the club in 2009 and quickly established himself as a franchise player. He was the face of the Pirates throughout the 2010s until he was traded to the Giants prior to the 2018 season, and enjoyed an otherworldly five-year run in Pittsburgh where he slashed .302/.396/.509 (151 wRC+) en route to an MVP award, four Silver Sluggers, a Gold Glove, and five All-Star appearances.

In his five seasons away from the Pirates, McCutchen was no longer the impactful bat he was at his peak but nonetheless remained a solid, steadying presence in the lineup for the Giants, Yankees, Phillies, and Brewers. In 549 games for those clubs from 2018 to 2022, McCutchen hit a respectable .242/.343/.423 with a 110 wRC+. While he lacked the consistent power and high batting averages of his days in Pittsburgh, the veteran still provided value by getting on base at a strong clip thanks to a fantastic 12.7% walk rate during that span.

After the first below-average offensive season of his career with Milwaukee in 2022, he returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year, $5MM contract prior to the 2023. He’s since signed identical contracts in the 2023-24 and now the 2024-25 offseasons, and the year-to-year arrangement seems to be working out quite well for both sides as the Pirates inch closer to a return to contention for the first time since McCutchen’s first stint with the team came to an end. Meanwhile, McCutchen has continued to age gracefully with solid production as the club’s regular DH over the past two seasons. His overall numbers in that time are remarkably similar to the five years he spent playing for other clubs, as he’s hit .243/.352/.403 with a wRC+ of 110. Since returning home to Pittsburgh, McCutchen has also reached a number of impressive career milestones including 2,000 hits, 1,000 walks, and 300 home runs.

Looking ahead to 2025, McCutchen figures to provide the Pirates with his typical steady production at DH. It’s the club’s second major move of the offseason after swapping Luis Ortiz to the Guardians in order to land Spencer Horwitz. McCutchen and Horwitz by themselves aren’t likely to dramatically alter an offense that finished third from the bottom in wRC+ with a figure of 86 that bested only the Rockies and White Sox, but there’s reason to believe the club plans to make additional moves as the offseason continues. Previous reports have connected the club to the corner outfield and bullpen markets this winter, and plenty of interesting players remain available in free agency and on the trade market at those positions. While the Pirates are hardly ever particularly big spenders, the club’s $79MM payroll projection for 2025 from RosterResource is $8MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, suggesting that there’s at least some room for additional moves even after bringing back McCutchen.

Pirates Plan To Discuss Contract With McCutchen After The Season

By Anthony Franco | September 11, 2024 at 11:16pm CDT

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.

NL Central Notes: Pham, Walker, Greene, Abbott, McCutchen, Heller

By Mark Polishuk | August 31, 2024 at 9:53am CDT

Jordan Walker “will play every day” down the stretch for the Cardinals, manager Oliver Marmol told The Athletic’s Katie Woo and other reporters yesterday after St. Louis recalled the top prospect from Triple-A Memphis. After debuting with a solid rookie season in 2023, Walker has hit only .151/.229/.233 over 83 plate appearances at the MLB level this season, and the Cardinals have kept him at Triple-A for much of the season. While his production in Memphis this year was only decent, the Cards have seen enough to bring Walker back for an extended stretch of playing time that will ideally set the table for Walker to stick as a lineup regular in 2025 and beyond.

Some space in the Cardinals’ outfield was cleared for Walker when Tommy Pham was designated for assignment, a day after the team first put Pham on irrevocable waivers. Woo writes that Pham welcomed the news and had even discussed such a move with the Cards, as he’ll now have a chance at more regular playing time on another team. If he joins another club before Sunday, Pham will also be eligible for that new club’s postseason roster.

Pirates Place Andrew McCutchen On 10-Day Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | August 17, 2024 at 11:56am CDT

The Pirates announced that Andrew McCutchen has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, and infielder Alika Williams was called up from Triple-A to take McCutchen’s spot on the 26-man roster. Ryan Palencer of the Bucs On Deck site (X link) was the first to report yesterday that Williams was headed back to the majors, after McCutchen was removed from Friday’s game due to left knee discomfort.

While there’s no truly good time for an injury, the knee problem arises at a particularly unfortunate juncture for McCutchen, as the veteran was in the midst of his hottest stretch of the season. McCutchen has hit .281/.375/.483 with four home runs over his last 104 plate appearances, boosting his overall slash line to .235/.336/.405 in 437 PA. That works out to an 109 wRC+ and yet another year of above-average production — now in his 16th MLB season, Cutch has only once dipped below the 100 wRC+ average threshold, as he slowed to a 97 wRC+ when playing with the Brewers in 2022.

Losing McCutchen to the IL is another blow to a reeling Pirates team. The Bucs’ 5-3 win over the Mariners yesterday snapped a 10-game losing streak that all but ended the club’s chances of snagging an NL wild card berth. Even that win was bittersweet due to McCutchen’s injury, which occurred while he was running to first base after hitting a single in the seventh inning.

Apart from handful of appearances in right field, the 37-year-old McCutchen has been utilized almost exclusively as a designated hitter over his two-season return to Pittsburgh. The Pirates will probably just shuffle several players through the DH spot to try and make up for Cutch’s absence, while also giving more at-bats to some younger players in what has suddenly become another evaluation period during the team’s lengthy rebuild. McCutchen can hopefully be back in short order to put a positive coda onto his season, and continue to set himself up for another contract in 2025.

Pirates Notes: Skenes, Jones, McCutchen, Rodriguez

By Nick Deeds | August 4, 2024 at 2:33pm CDT

As noted by Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pirates GM Ben Cherington made his weekly radio appearance on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh earlier today. In that appearance, Cherington suggested that right-hander Paul Skenes is in “good shape” in regards to his innings workload to this point in the season. The star rookie has thrown 108 innings so far this year between the major and minor leagues, just below his career high of 129 1/3 between LSU and the minor leagues last year. Cherington went on to suggest that while the club could consider lowering Skenes’s pitch counts at some point but didn’t commit to that path, instead noting that the right-hander’s intense preparation between starts puts him in a good position to handle volume, and that the club’s focus is on how well he recovers between starts rather than his pitch counts or total innings of work.

That’s surely a relief for Pirates fans, as Pittsburgh will need every inning they can get from their young ace as they look to work their way into the playoff conversation. The Pirates currently sit at a decent 56-54 record after buying at the trade deadline. While they’re six games back of the Brewers for the NL Central crown as things stand, Pittsburgh sits just 2.5 games back in a crowded NL Wild Card picture that also features the Braves, Diamondbacks, Padres, Mets, and Cardinals. Skenes has been a huge part of the club’s resurgence this year, as the club has won nine of the 13 games he’s started for them since debuting in mid-May. Team record during a pitcher’s starts is an imperfect measure of that pitcher’s effectiveness, but it’s obvious that Skenes has helped the Pirates in a big way by posting a sparkling 1.90 ERA in 80 2/3 innings of work in the majors while striking out exactly one third of batters faced entering play today.

Skenes isn’t the only young arm that Cherington commented on, as he indicated that right-hander Jared Jones is “real close” to a rehab assignment at Triple-A following a 45-pitch live bullpen session. Cherington suggested that Jones’s first rehab outing is likely to be of a similar pitch count before moving up from there. Pittsburgh’s other front-of-the-rotation rookie has been on the 15-day IL since Independence Day due to a lat strain, but prior to that injury had looked excellent in his first season as a big leaguer with a 3.56 ERA and a 26.4% strikeout rate in 91 innings of work. Jones’s return to action should not only provide the club with a boost down the stretch, but would offer them a daunting and entirely homegrown playoff rotation alongside Skenes and Mitch Keller should the club manage to make the postseason for the first time since 2015.

While the news regarding Jones and Skenes is undoubtedly positive, a turn towards the lineup yields more mixed results. Veteran slugger Andrew McCutchen is out of today’s lineup after being pulled from yesterday’s game due what the team announced as tightness in his left quad muscle. It’s unclear as of yet whether or not the 37-year-old veteran will require a trip to the injured list due to the issue or not, but a lengthy absence for McCutchen would be a frustrating turn of events for a Pirates club that had just begun to fire on all cylinders in the lineup after adding Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the trade deadline. The veteran, who has slashed a decent .228/.328/.383 with a 102 wRC+ as the club’s primary DH this year, could be replaced by Connor Joe or a youngster currently at Triple-A like Edward Olivares in the starting lineup if an IL stint is required. Catcher Joey Bart is DH’ing in today’s game, making room for Yasmani Grandal behind the plate.

Speaking of catchers, Cherington offered some positive positional news today when he indicated that there’s a “chance” that longtime catching prospect Endy Rodriguez could play in minor league games before the end of the year despite undergoing what was thought to be season-ending UCL surgery back in December. Cherington cautioned that any such rehab games would first come at DH and then first base due to the excessive pressure put on a player’s arm by the catcher position, though he didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of Rodriguez getting time behind the plate before the year comes to a close. The 24-year-old switch hitter hit just .220/.284/.328 in his first taste of the majors last year but is a career .282/.361/.442 hitter at Triple-A who was a consensus top-50 prospect in the game prior to his debut and subsequent injury last year.

Andrew McCutchen Planning To Continue Playing Beyond 2024

By Darragh McDonald | June 21, 2024 at 9:31am CDT

Outfielder/designated hitter Andrew McCutchen has seemingly been reinvigorated by a return to the Pirates in recent years and he doesn’t plan on stopping. “In my mind, this isn’t my last year,” McCutchen said to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “As long as my body holds up and I’m not embarrassing myself out there, I wanna keep going.”

McCutchen, now 37, has spent most of his career as a Pirate. He was drafted by Pittsburgh back in 2005 and went on to rack up huge accolades from his 2009 major league debut through the end of the 2017 season. In that time, he hit 203 home runs and slashed .291/.379/.487 for a 137 wRC+. He also stole 171 bases while serving as the club’s regular center fielder. He was an All-Star five times in that stretch and was the National League MVP in 2013, the first of three straight years in which he guided the Bucs to the postseason.

The club then slipped from contention for a few years and traded the final season of McCutchen’s contract to the Giants and he would bounce to the Yankees, Phillies and Brewers for a few seasons. With Milwaukee in 2022, he hit just .237/.316/.384 for a wRC+ of 98 in his age-35 season.

He returned to Pittsburgh in 2023 via a one-year, $5MM deal. Given the downward trend of his performance, some expected his return to PNC Park to be little more than a feel-good story for a rebuilding club with little to cheer for in recent years.

But as mentioned, the reunion has coincided with a nice bounceback for the veteran. That’s not to say that he’s back to MVP levels but he was able to slash .256/.378/.397 last year, good enough for a 115 wRC+. He and the Bucs then doubled down, reuniting on another one-year, $5MM deal. To emphasize that McCutchen is committed to continuing his playing career, Mackey relays that he actually lobbied for a multi-year deal this offseason. However, the Bucs had a bit of hesitation since the 2023 season ended with McCutchen on the injured list due to a partial tear of his left Achilles tendon.

That injury seems to be long forgotten, as McCutchen has been back in good form here in 2024. He already has ten home runs, just two shy of last year’s total, and is hitting .241/.338/.401 for a wRC+ of 112.

With the results still coming, it’s perfectly understandable that he wants to keep things rolling. Mackey suggests there’s at least some hesitation on the club’s part, as they may prefer to have the designated hitter slot open in order to rotate other players through. McCutchen has played 20 innings in right field this year but has otherwise been in the DH slot. Though Mackey also reminds readers that owner Bob Nutting has said McCutchen can stay a Pirate as long as he wants.

There may come a time when the goals of the franchise clash with those of McCutchen as an individual. He said multiple times in 2023 that he didn’t intend on playing for another club for the rest of his career. The Bucs are gradually creeping out of its long rebuild, as they hovered around the Wild Card race last year and are doing so again this year. But for now, he’s a key part of the reason why they are competing, as his 112 wRC+ is second on the team among qualified hitters, trailing only Bryan Reynolds.

NL Central Notes: Happ, Pirates, Liberatore

By Nick Deeds | March 2, 2024 at 8:53pm CDT

Cubs left fielder Ian Happ won’t be appearing in games for the time being after he suffered a mild hamstring strain during a game earlier this week, club manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). Counsell added that the club remains “optimistic” that Happ will be ready for Opening Day, though he added that the 29-year-old will need to get additional reps in before Spring Training comes to a close in order to be ready for the start of the season.

The ninth-overall pick in the 2015 draft, Happ is entering the first year of the three-year, $61MM extension he inked with the Cubs early last season. The switch-hitter has settled in to become one of the club’s most reliable regulars in recent seasons, slashing a solid .259/.351/.435 (119 wRC+) across the past two seasons while earning his first career All Star appearance during the 2022 season and back-to-back Gold Glove awards in left field. In 2023, Happ posted a career-best 22.1% strikeout rate while walking at an impressive 14.3% clip. That strong plate discipline has left Happ as a key piece of the club’s core entering the 2023 season alongside the likes of Seiya Suzuki, Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson, and Nico Hoerner.

Losing Happ for any amount of time entering the regular season would surely be a blow to the Cubs, though Chicago has plenty of other options for its outfield mix available should their longest-tenured hitter start the season on the shelf. With top outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong expected to begin the season at the Triple-A level, the likes of Mike Tauchman and Alexander Canario figure to be the most likely options for a reserve outfield spot with the big league club to open the season currently on the 40-man roster. Veteran left fielder David Peralta is also in camp with the club after signing on a minor league deal last month, with slugging prospect Owen Caissie also among the club’s non-roster invitees.

More from around the NL Central…

Pirates outfielders Andrew McCutchen and Joshua Palacios have yet to appear this spring after being slowed by injuries entering camp, though manager Derek Shelton recently told reporters (including those at MLB.com) that each figures to see the field at some point in the next week. McCutchen, 37, has been working on defensive drills and taking swings this spring while rehabbing the partially torn achilles that ended his 2023 campaign in early September. The veteran figures to enter the 2024 season penciled in as the club’s regular DH, though he did make occasional appearances in right field last season. Palacios, meanwhile, figures to battle with the likes of Edward Olivares and Connor Joe for playing time in the outfield alongside regulars Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski. The 28-year-old slashed .239/.279/.413 in 91 games with Pittsburgh last year but has been slowed this spring by a lower leg injury.
Cardinals southpaw Matthew Liberatore spoke to reporters (including Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) recently about his goals for the coming season, and while he indicated that he still hopes to have a future with the club as a starting pitcher at some point, right now his priority is contributing in the majors regardless of his role. Liberatore struggled to a 5.88 ERA in 11 starts for the Cardinals last year but was dominant out of the bullpen, posting a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings of work with a 24.5% strikeout rate. The club’s starting five appears set with Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn all poised to take spots in the rotation, though Liberatore has stretched out as a starter alongside the likes of Zack Thompson with Worthy noting that manager Oli Marmol hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the season with a six-man rotation.

Pirates Re-Sign Andrew McCutchen

By Darragh McDonald | December 20, 2023 at 8:44am CDT

Andrew McCutchen said multiple times throughout the 2023 season that he didn’t intend to play anywhere other than Pittsburgh for the remainder of his career, and that’s exactly where he’ll be in 2024. The Pirates announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed the franchise icon to a one-year deal contract for the upcoming season. McCutchen, a client of Aegis Sports Management, will reportedly be guaranteed $5MM. A corresponding move will be announced “at a later time,” the team said in this morning’s press release.

It’s a reunion that has long been expected, given not only McCutchen’s vocal stance on the matter but also comments from general manager Ben Cherington indicating the Pirates wanted McCutchen back and planned to discuss a new contract in the offseason. Since Cutch suffered a partial tear of his Achilles in September, the club appeared to want to see how his rehab progressed before making things official, but reporting from last week suggested the two sides were starting to accelerate talks.

McCutchen, 37, isn’t the MVP-caliber performer from earlier in his career but can still swing it. He signed a one-year, $5MM deal to rejoin the Pirates for 2023, hitting 12 home runs and drawing walks in 15.9% of his plate appearances. His .256/.378/.397 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 115, indicating he was 15% better than the league average hitter overall. He also still flashed a bit of baserunning prowess, stealing 11 bags in 14 tries.

Defensively, he was almost exclusively a designated hitter, spending just 64 2/3 innings in right field. He is likely to be in a similar role this year, having returned via the same $5MM deal that he signed a year ago. The Pirates will likely be delighted with a comparable performance but are surely also signing McCutchen for leadership and veteran presence, as well as being a treat for fans. Jack Suwinski and Bryan Reynolds will likely have two everyday spots in the outfield locked down. Edward Olivares, Joshua Palacios, Connor Joe and others should be battling for playing time in one corner, though McCutchen will perhaps jog out to the grass from time to time.

The season-ending injury forced McCutchen to miss the last few weeks of the 2023 campaign, with his last appearance coming on September 4. That kept him from hitting his 300th career home run during the campaign, as he’s currently parked on 299. But he should have plenty of opportunities to hit that milestone next year, which will appropriately come in a Pirates’ uniform. From 2009 to 2017, McCutchen was a five-time All-Star, won a Gold Glove in 2012 and National League MVP in 2013.

The heyday of McCutchen coincided with the club’s last competitive window. They made the playoffs in three straight years from 2013 to 2015 but haven’t been back since. The 2023 campaign featured an encouraging record of 76-86, still below .500 but their best finish since 2018. If the club’s young core is able to take a step forward and return to the postseason, then McCutchen could be a nice throughline connecting the two eras of baseball in Pittsburgh.

Roster Resource now pegs the club’s 2024 payroll at $70MM, just a bit below last year’s Opening Day figure of $73MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. General manager Ben Cherington has suggested that the payroll could push upwards next year, though it’s unclear exactly how far they are willing to go. In the post from Mackey linked above, he hints that the club may be making an addition to its pitching staff soon, likely via trade.

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the agreement and the terms.

Pirates, Andrew McCutchen In Talks On Reunion

By Steve Adams | December 15, 2023 at 8:50am CDT

Talks between the Pirates and Andrew McCutchen on a potential reunion have begun to accelerate, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A deal between the two sides could be completed by early next week.

A reunion between McCutchen and the Pirates has been seen as something of a formality for several months now. McCutchen returned to his original organization last year, signing a one-year deal worth $5MM to serve as the team’s designated hitter and a part-time outfielder. He told Mackey at the time of his signing that he hoped to finish his career back in Pittsburgh, which felt like home. Cutch reiterated his desire to play in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh only back in May, and after his season ended in early September with a partial tear of his Achilles, Pirates GM Ben Cherington said they hoped for a new deal and planned to talk with McCutchen this winter.

The now-37-year-old McCutchen is a franchise icon with the Pirates, who selected him with the 11th overall pick back in 2005 and watched him develop from one of the game’s top prospects, to a Rookie of the Year candidate, to a five-time All-Star and eventual National League MVP (2013). McCutchen signed a $51.5MM extension with the Bucs in 2012 but was traded after the team picked up an option for the seventh and final season of the deal — a swap that brought current cornerstone Bryan Reynolds to Pittsburgh.

After stops with the Giants, Yankees, Phillies and Brewers, McCutchen returned home last year and spoke often about his love of Pittsburgh and his desire to finish out his career there. It wasn’t all pure nostalgia, however, as the four-time Silver Slugger proved he still had life in his bat as well. McCutchen tallied 473 plate appearances and posted a .256/.378/.397 batting line, swatting a dozen homers, collecting 19 doubles and walking at a massive 15.9% clip.

The timing of McCutchen’s injury was particularly unfortunate, as it came on the cusp of a milestone. McCutchen sits at 299 career home runs — just one shy of becoming just the 160th player in MLB history to reach 300 home runs. The Pirates open the 2024 season on the road, so it’s possible that his milestone round-tripper could come away from the home fans, but regardless of where that historic long ball takes place, the fans at PNC Park will give McCutchen a hero’s welcome whenever he first takes the field again next season.

Assuming McCutchen resumes his role as a primary designated hitter, he’ll slot into a lineup with Reynolds and Jack Suwinski locked into outfield spots, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz on the left side of the infield, Henry Davis behind the plate and recently signed Rowdy Tellez at first base. The Pirates currently have a projected payroll of just $58MM, and re-signing McCutchen at or close to the same terms as last year would push that to $63MM. It’s not clear quite how high the team’s payroll will go, but Cherington said at this month’s Winter Meetings that the payroll will increase over last year’s $73MM mark.

Cherington: Pirates Have Focused On Starting Pitching

By Anthony Franco | November 9, 2023 at 5:40pm CDT

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington is among the many executives who spoke with the media at the GM Meetings this week. The fifth-year baseball operations leader indicated the rotation has been the focus in the early going.

“We’ve been mostly focused on starting pitching, both in free agency and trade,” Cherington said of the offseason’s first few days (link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “We would like to add to our position player group, too. But more of our energy has gone to the pitching market early on.”

Bringing in a starter or two seems an obvious goal for the front office. Pittsburgh had five starters log 50+ innings this past season. None had an ERA better than Mitch Keller’s 4.21 mark. Rich Hill was traded and is now a free agent. Roansy Contreras had a disastrous season that saw him optioned to the minors on a couple occasions. Luis Ortiz allowed nearly five earned runs per nine with almost as many walks as strikeouts.

Despite a disappointing second half, Keller has one rotation spot secure as the current staff ace. Johan Oviedo logged 177 2/3 innings over a full slate of 32 starts. The results — a 4.31 ERA with a 20.2% strikeout percentage and lofty 10.6% walk rate — were serviceable enough that Oviedo likely goes into Spring Training with a job in hand. JT Brubaker could return midseason after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April.

That still leaves multiple vacancies, as none of Quinn Priester, Bailey Falter nor Osvaldo Bido pitched well in smaller samples. No one will expect the Bucs to make a run at Blake Snell or Aaron Nola, but they have the payroll room to add a third or fourth tier free agent. Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes are the only two players with guaranteed contracts totaling a combined $17MM next season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects the arbitration class to earn roughly $16MM. The Pirates opened 2023 with a player payroll around $73MM, as calculated by Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

Cherington and his group thus have the ability to consider mid-level free agent options like Seth Lugo, Jack Flaherty or Michael Wacha. If they prefer the one-year route — a tack they’ve taken in prior offseasons — someone like Wade Miley or Hyun Jin Ryu could be a possibility.

They’ll need to weigh any rotation investment against what they hope to accomplish on the position player side. Cherington said the club would like to add at first base. Pittsburgh traded Carlos Santana at the deadline and relied mostly on Connor Joe and Alfonso Rivas down the stretch. Joe’s production was mostly concentrated against left-handed pitching; Rivas was waived and lost to Cleveland.

With Santana back on the open market, a reunion could be an option. Brandon Belt, Rhys Hoskins and longtime division rival Joey Votto join him in the free agent class. Rowdy Tellez and Dominic Smith are non-tender candidates.

It seems first base is the most pressing infield need for the Bucs. Cherington expressed more confidence in their internal second base options, which are headlined by Ji Hwan Bae, Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales. None of the group had much success this year — they were 26th in OPS at the position — but it doesn’t seem an addition is a priority, even if Cherington added that they’re “not ruling out adding someone.” A middling free agent market led by Whit Merrifield, Amed Rosario and Tim Anderson could play a role in that.

One free agent who seems likely to wind up in Pittsburgh is franchise icon Andrew McCutchen. The veteran outfielder has been clear about his desire to finish his career in the Steel City. Cherington has reciprocated that interest on multiple occasions, something he reiterated yesterday. The GM told reporters that he has had multiple conversations with McCutchen’s camp since the season ended (link via Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

If McCutchen returns, he’d rejoin Reynolds and Henry Davis among the corner outfield/designated hitter options. Davis, a former #1 overall pick, saw the bulk of his time in right field as a rookie. Cherington stressed the organization still views the Louisville product as a viable option at catcher, though, even if their playing time share in 2023 suggested they viewed fellow first-year backstop Endy Rodríguez as a better defender behind the plate.

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