{"id":553168,"date":"2026-02-03T23:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553168\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T23:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:28:15","slug":"pirates-must-resolve-feud-with-disgruntled-franchise-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553168\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Must Resolve Feud With Disgruntled Franchise Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring training is almost here, but the Pittsburgh Pirates still have some unfinished business to attend to. They\u2019d still like to add another hitter<\/a> before the offseason ends, and they still need to figure out what to do<\/a> with Andrew McCutchen.<\/p>\n

McCutchen, 39, remains a free agent, and he isn\u2019t happy about it. The Pirates legend has recently been voicing his displeasure<\/a> on social media, saying he\u2019s \u201cnot done\u201d and indicating that he\u2019d like to retire on his own terms, presumably with Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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After 17 MLB seasons, including 12 with the Pirates, he\u2019s earned that right and deserves it. However, Pittsburgh may not be interested in bringing him back.<\/p>\n

McCutchen was solid offensively last season and has aged gracefully, posting an OPS of at least .700 every year of his career. However, his WAR and OPS have declined in each of the last two seasons to the point where he\u2019s essentially a replacement-level player.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t account for his veteran leadership and positive impact on the clubhouse, of course. If he wants to come back<\/a> for one more season, Pittsburgh should find a way to make it work.<\/p>\n

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The Pirates are trying to be more competitive<\/a> this year, but McCutchen hasn\u2019t become a liability yet. He can still get on base and pop a few homers.<\/p>\n

If Pittsburgh wants to move on from McCutchen, that\u2019s okay, too. Baseball is a business, and he understands that. But whatever the Pirates decide, they must find a way to resolve their feud with him before the season starts.<\/p>\n

More Pirates: Ken Rosenthal Explains Why Pirates Keep Falling Short In Free Agency<\/a><\/p>\n

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The post Pirates Must Resolve Feud With Disgruntled Franchise Legend<\/a> appeared first on SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring training is almost here, but the Pittsburgh Pirates still have some unfinished business to attend to. They\u2019d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[1151,5,4748,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":["post-553168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-baseball","tag-ken-rosenthal","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116009297741511368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553168","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=553168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}