{"id":537352,"date":"2026-01-25T08:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537352\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T08:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:03:18","slug":"pirates-open-to-re-signing-andrew-mccutchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537352\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Open To Re-Signing Andrew McCutchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

After spending 12 of his 18 Major League seasons with the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen<\/a> said back in August<\/a> that he wanted to return for another season in the black-and-gold, while acknowledging that his shortcomings during the 2025 season.\u00a0 \u201cI have to do what I need to do to\u2026show that I was able to have a good year and still can play the following year,\u201d McCutchen said, noting that he didn\u2019t want to be just \u201cfilling in a spot\u201d and not contributing.<\/p>\n

There hasn\u2019t been any buzz about McCutchen\u2019s market as he enters his age-39 season, with the assumption being that the Pirates are his only potential destination.\u00a0 When asked about McCutchen during the PiratesFest fan event this weekend, Bucs GM Ben Cherington told fans and reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>) that the club is still has to assemble more of its roster before considering McCutchen\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew has meant a ton to the team.\u00a0 He\u2019s had an incredible run at two different times.\u00a0 Certainly his legacy as a Pirate is secure,\u201d Cherington said.\u00a0 \u201cEverybody with the Pirates, it\u2019s our desire to maintain a really good relationship with Andrew well into the future.\u00a0 Then we come back to our team.\u00a0 What is the job?\u00a0 The job is to build a team that gives us the best chance to win games when you\u2019re at the ballpark in June and July\u2026.Our approach this offseason has been laser-focused on what gives us the best chance to win more baseball games in Pittsburgh than we have in the past seasons.\u00a0 That\u2019s gonna continue to guide our decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much respect for Andrew.\u00a0 That relationship is really important to us. We\u2019ll continue to communicate with him directly as the team comes together.\u00a0 We have more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCutchen hit .239\/.333\/.367 with 13 homers over 551 plate appearances in 2025, translating to a 95 wRC+.\u00a0 While it was just the second time in McCutchen\u2019s stellar career that he dropped under the 100 wRC+ mark for league-average offense, most of his Statcast<\/a> metrics were also average at best, apart from a very strong 12.2% walk rate.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t the numbers you want from a designated hitter in particular, and McCutchen is primarily a DH at this point in his career, with only 20 games played in the outfield during his 2023-25 return tenure in Pittsburgh.\u00a0 To this end, the Pirates have seemingly already addressed the DH spot by signing Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a>, who may alternate with Spencer Horwitz<\/a> between the first base and DH positions in the lineup.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hearn can also play in the corner outfield, and since O\u2019Hearn and Horwitz are both left-handed hitters, there would seemingly be some roster space for Cutch as a part-time righty bat who is perhaps limited to facing southpaw pitching.\u00a0 As Cherington implied, however, the Pirates remain looking for ways to improve the team.\u00a0 If that means choosing between McCutchen or a younger and more versatile position player, the second option might simply make more sense for the Pirates.<\/p>\n

Improving the offense has been the club\u2019s chief goal this winter.\u00a0 Between O\u2019Hearn, Brandon Lowe<\/a>, Jhostynxon Garcia<\/a>, and Jake Mangum<\/a>, the Bucs hope they\u2019ve already both raised the ceiling and elevated the floor of their offensive potential, plus it would naturally help a ton if Bryan Reynolds<\/a> or Oneil Cruz<\/a> bounced back from disappointing 2025 campaigns.\u00a0 As underwhelming as McCutchen\u2019s 2025 numbers were, his 95 wRC+ still ranked fourth amongst all Pirates hitters last year, speaking to the lackluster state of Pittsburgh\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n

If McCutchen was any other player, it probably wouldn\u2019t even be a question that the Pirates would move from an aging DH-only bat.\u00a0 However, cutting ties with a franchise icon doesn\u2019t sound like something Cherington (or likely owner Bob Nutting) wants to do until it is absolutely necessary, or if Cutch makes the decision to retire on his own terms.\u00a0 Part of the reason McCutchen returned to the Pirates prior to the 2023 season was his desire to be part of Pittsburgh\u2019s next winning era, yet with seven straight losing seasons, the Bucs have yet to fully break out of their rebuild.<\/p>\n

Breaking through to at least a winning record (and maybe a playoff berth) with McCutchen on the roster would be ideal for all parties.\u00a0 McCutchen\u2019s previous three one-year deals with the Pirates were signed earlier in the offseason than January 24, though of course there\u2019s still plenty of time before Spring Training for a deal to be worked out between the two sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After spending 12 of his 18 Major League seasons with the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen said back in August…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[1151,5,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-537352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-andrew-mccutchen","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115954699704295664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}