The Pittsburgh Pirates are still open to re-signing Andrew McCutchen, but their relationship with the franchise legend isn’t in a good place, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
Rosenthal detailed Pittsburgh’s delicate situation with McCutchen and cited multiple Pirates officials who said they “know they screwed up” by not laying out a firm plan with the five-time All-Star after he came back last winter.
“Perhaps this all was unavoidable for a proud player and often bumbling franchise,” Rosenthal reported. “But if the Pirates had been more straightforward with McCutchen, they at least would have made clear that they offered him no guarantees beyond 2025. They held internal discussions about relating those intentions to McCutchen, sources said. But they decided against taking a direct approach, perhaps out of fear of confrontation.”
Pittsburgh has a mess on its hands and it’s a mess the team created for itself.
Not bringing McCutchen back is a defensible call. In 135 games last year, he had a .239/.333/.367 slash line and a 95 OPS+, per Baseball Reference. He was neither terrible nor very good at the plate, and he may not get any better when considering he turned 39 in October.
If anything, one could cite McCutchen as an example of how the Pirates are trying to make fans remember the good times of the past and think less about the franchise’s failure to fully capitalize on what time ace Paul Skenes is under team control.
But Pittsburgh has handled this so badly that the 2013 National League MVP is publicly calling out the team and lamenting how he’s not getting a farewell tour:
When the level of fan frustration is as high at it’s ever been in the Steel City, the Pirates know they aren’t going to win a PR battle against McCutchen.
Rosenthal speculated a contract may not bring a satisfying resolution at this point, either. The veteran outfielder could still harbor hard feelings “over the team’s initial refusal to consider him” or “what almost certainly would be a role limited to serving as a DH against left-handed pitching, if that.”
This is all setting exactly the wrong kind of tone in Pittsburgh prior to Opening Day.