DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: On Cutch’s future

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: On Cutch’s future

[Music] [Applause] So, the way stuff works anymore. Somebody posted on Twitter a thing that was said on Reddit and Andrew McCutchen responded. Morning to you. Good Wednesday morning. I’m Don Kawachu with DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into football and or hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this. Cut saw a thing in which a reporter for Major League Baseball, whom I shall leave unnamed because he’s a friend and he worked here at DK Pittsburgh Sports for a long time, wrote as follows. Right now, I’m leaning towards Kutch not coming back. Now, that’s not a news report. That’s not based on anything. That’s quite literally the reporter answering a question that somebody had for him on Reddit. Cut seized this opportunity to reply, “Wow, that’s news to me.” And naturally, of course, it’s Kutch’s reply that’s news to everyone else. Now, you’re free to interpret that as you wish. Here’s what I’ve got for you. I see this as a two-fold thing because there are clearly two entities involved. One is the team, the other is the player. Everything that I know about Cutch, everything that he’s told me, everything that I’ve heard since the end of the season, including, by the way, that remark would strongly suggest he’s not done. And I can’t fathom a scenario in which he would want to be done. Not now. Makes no sense. Most importantly, because he can still play. You can say what you want about where he rates against other DHS in the National League or the American League, but when it comes to the Pirates, he was still their second best hitter behind Brian Reynolds by using OPS and by limiting the field to the three players who were able to collect enough plate appearances, that’s 3.1 per each team’s game to qualify for the National League batting title. Brian Reynolds had a 720. OPS Cut had the 700 and O’Neal Cruz was at 676. That’s it. Your second best hitter was Cut. Now, while I understand the team has a plan to go out and, you know, get whoever and whatever and bolster the offense, there’s nothing about discarding your second best hitter that improves your offense. limit his playing time, limit his role, whatever, which would probably happen to him anywhere he’d go at age 39. But there’s plenty of room for that right here. His 239 batting average won’t excite anybody, but that’s also just the new normal. 333 on base percentage, so still nearly 100 points higher than that, which tells you that he’s having professional at bats, as he’s always had. 67 walks and 477 official at bats. Also hit 13 home runs, 57 RBI’s. Come on, he’s couch. Why am I reading off stats to you? You know who he is. You know what he is. He’ll know when he’s done. He’ll let you know when he’s done. And that takes me to the other side of this equation because he will let the pirates know when he’s done and not the other way around. My friends, there is nothing to analyze from the perspective of management/ownership as it relates to telling Cutch when he’s going to be finished, when he should retire, when he should go to another city after he came back to the one that he loves and performed here without complaint through some of the dumbest decisions anyone was making anywhere in the world of professional sports. And now that they’re finally going to spend some money, that’s when you’re going to get rid of the living legend, the team’s best player of this century, the model citizen, right? When you’re, you know, getting ready to get everyone excited about the team. Come on, are you new here? Do you not recall the story of Cutch directly reaching out to Bob Nutting to say, “Hey, I want to come home.” And Nutting and Travis Williams in turn instructing Ben Cherington to go get him. Have you not paid any attention to the way this GM has been treated? Yes, it’s absurd. It’s obscene that he still has this job, but along the way, he hasn’t exactly been afforded a ton of respect, including by those above him. Can you imagine the discussion when Cherington approaches nutting in particular, Nutting and Cut are close and he says, “Hey Bob, I feel like I could ramp up our collective ops by.14 points. If I go and I get this guy to replace Cutch, you know what I do if I’m Bob in that setting? I I reach back behind the chair and I pull up just happened to be there this framed autographed photo of Brian Dela Cruz and I say this this is what you’re going to I’m supposed to I’m supposed to take your word. I’m supposed to listen to you and throw cut out and throw away all this happy mojo we’re trying to build so that you can get me a hitter. Uh, if only that’s the way these things really went. Huh? I said this late in the regular season. I said this after the season. Going to say it again right now. This is all up to Cutch. Cut wants to come back. He’s coming back. Cut wants to come back to Pittsburgh. He’s coming back to Pittsburgh. They can go back and forth about his role, about how often or in what positions he might be used, or if they’d get somebody to maybe help in the DH role, although they kind of did that already by having Brian Reynolds take some turns there, which of course didn’t help much since Reynolds had a down year. But these guys and this GM can’t get rid of Cutch if they want to. And that’s because he matters and they don’t. When we come back, J1Q. [Music] If you’re looking for a great dining experience, look no further than Northshore Tavern. Located directly across Federal Street from PNC Park, next door to Mike’s Beer Bar, Northshore Tavern is Pittsburgh’s home for steak on a stone. Enjoy your steak finished on a hot lava stone in front of you, where you ensure each piece is cooked to exactly your liking. or try their rotating selection of entre, hot sandwiches, salads, and burgers, all while enjoying the ambiance dedicated to the great players and history of the Pittsburgh Pirates all around you. Come see why everyone’s talking about Northshore Tavern and Steak on a Stone. It’s Gun Storage Check Week. Help prevent unwanted access to your firearms. No one wants their unsecured gun to be used in an accident, a suicide, or a crime. Use lock boxes, safes, and locks to secure your firearms. Learn more at gunstorage check.org. That’s gunstoch check.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association. [Music] Today’s J1 Q comes from Timmy. And you guys, Timmy is mad. Timmy says, “DK, you sound convinced that the Pirates will match last year’s payroll.” I got to tell you, I don’t see it. They’re set up for a classic Bob Nutting off season. They did some trimming at the deadline. They’re going to dump more when they trade Mitch Keller for a bunch of guys who aren’t major league ready. Jared Triolo and his Magic Glove will be back at third base. Maybe Tommy Fam will return. Done deal. Why spend when you can pretend? They’ll cheap out of 2026. Nothing will thank Ben Sherington for his dedication when he hangs this around his neck and then it’ll be all shiny new for a salary capped 2028 after a nice year off from this nonsense. Hey, Timmy’s available for parties, everyone. It takes a lot to go so cynical about the Pirates that you blow past me in the left lane and I don’t even see you within a second. But that’s where you went, Timmy. The Pirates spent $87 million on major league payroll in the 2025 season. Timmy, you said that they did some trimming at the deadline. They did some serious cutting at the deadline. They whacked the payroll. David Bednar is projected to be a $9 million a year player through arbitration for the Yankees in the 2026 season. Kabrian Hayes was getting around eight. Throw in a Bailey Falter here or there and they knocked 20 million off. Well, if you look at where they are at the moment, meaning their projected payroll once everybody is signed and all the arbitration cases are done and everything else with the existing roster, they’re at 62. So, there’s a $25 million gap between what they actually spent in 2025 and what they’re projected to spend in 2026. I never worry about who believes me or who doesn’t. That’s not something I can control. All I can do is work as hard as possible to come up with real information and share it with you. What you do with it is your business. I can tell you that I’ve been told that payroll will go up and I’ve been told that it’s going to be in all likelihood in the 95 million range which is not a dramatic increase. 95 to 100. If there is some extraordinary circumstance in which they need some other monies to complete a contract with someone who can make a really significant difference in the lineup, they can go as high as 110. But what you’re bringing up is something else entirely. You’re saying that they won’t even match last year’s payroll. They’re not in a position to cut. I going to try to explain to you why, but it’s not easy. With the salary cap system being in play now with teams like the Pirates having everything to gain from a system in which there’s a ceiling, there’s a floor that’s only about 20 million or so off of that ceiling and there’s immensely expanded revenue sharing. You got to play the game. Did anybody else not notice? Because it sure sounds like you didn’t, Timmy, that it was Hal Steinbrrener, owner of the Yankees, essentially going to bat for the Pirates and the Marlins and a handful of other teams in his public remarks to New York media last week. You can’t be sticking your fingers in your ears while that’s going on. You’ve got to show the rest of the owners more than anybody else. Not the union. There’s nothing you can do to change the union leadership’s mind. Not even the public. Heck, I don’t think the the nutting ownership in general could change anybody’s mind in Pittsburgh about anything this side of curing diseases. But what you can do is you can tell and show the rest of Major League Baseball’s owners that we’re spending what we have. We know that payroll is low. We know that we have Paul Ske. We know that just because of skins alone, more eyes are on us than ever. We’re not going to be the ones who embarrass you in this negotiation. We’re not going to be the ones who get brought up repeatedly by everybody to your detriment. And you got to understand, this isn’t stuff that I’ve gotten from the pirates. They have to do this. They don’t have a choice. I am imploring everyone to at least open your mind here to how different this circumstance and scenario is. This is not like complaining about the pirates spending 2, three years ago. This is a whole new world that everybody’s looking at. You mentioned it yourself, Timmy. you said, “And then it’ll be all shiny new for a salary capped 2028 after a nice year off.” Dude, if they’re going to miss a year, the 2027 season, they aren’t going to back down. They’re not going to back down. So, you yourself are telling you why they have to raise payroll right now. I appreciate the question, Timmy. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. We’ll be back with another one of these tomorrow. [Music]

On Andrew McCutchen’s future in Pittsburgh.

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