Another bad news hit the Pittsburgh Pirates: the head coach of the Pirates shed tears as four of his star players made a final decision to terminate their huge contracts.
Pirates fans found Pittsburgh’s homecoming to be the most heartwarming tale of the year. Despite the season’s unfortunate conclusion due to McCutchen’s partial Achilles injury last week, there is a shared desire for a 2024 reunion. The team and McCutchen will get together in the offseason to talk about furthering their partnership, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington informed journalists on Wednesday (source: Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
The Pirates hope to have “a lot more good moments out there with him” in the future. “We believe that the injury he’s recovering from right now should not get in the way of him being a good baseball player next year and being someone who can help us,” Cherington stated. “We’ve agreed that we’ll pick that conversation up when the season is over.”
McCutchen, now thirty-six, spent the winter returning to his former team on a $5 million, one-year contract. The former NL MVP led the charge as the Bucs advanced to the postseason every year from 2013 to 2015, and he was selected by the Pirates with the 11th overall choice in the 2005 draft. He played his best ball with Pittsburgh from 2009 to 2017.
Upon his return to Pittsburgh, McCutchen was greeted with hero status and expressed his desire to play in Pittsburgh both upon his signing and a few months into the season. On May 26, McCutchen stated to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “I don’t want to continue my career on another team.” The Bucs respected McCutchen’s desires by holding onto him until the trade deadline, despite interest from other teams, while they traded away stars like Rodolfo Castro, Rich Hill, Carlos Santana, and Ji Man Choi.
McCutchen’s return to the scene of his major league debut has been fruitful. Throughout 473 at-bats, the five-time All-Star batted first (378, 397, and 256), with eleven stolen bases, 19 doubles, and 12 home runs. This season, he also recorded his 2000th hit in an incredible career, and if his injuries hadn’t prevented it, he probably would have hit his 300th home run. In his career, he currently has 299 big flies to his credit. Should he decide to play in the Major Leagues again the following season, he will likely join the elite group of players with 300 home runs as only the 159th member.
There definitely won’t be much outfield time to go around in terms of roster fit, though that was also the case in 2023 when he played in just 64 innings. After hitting (as of this writing) 25 home runs, Jack Suwinski should have center field covered. Bryan Reynolds is firmly established in left field. In any case, McCutchen hasn’t been a reliable center field option in years.
Although right field is less certain, top prospect Henry Davis has spent a lot of time there, and the Bucs now have several depth players on their 40-man roster in Canaan Smith-Njigba and Joshua Palacios. McCutchen may return to his position as the team’s primary designated hitter. He would also occasionally be a viable outfield option, possibly lining up in right field when facing left-handed pitchers.
Even for the Bucs with modest budgets, McCutchen shouldn’t present a payroll issue. It wouldn’t be shocking to see a pay similar to last year’s $5MM rate since the Pirates only have $17MM in 2024 due to Reynolds’ $10MM salary and the $7MM committed to third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. The Bucs only have four players who are eligible for arbitration rises: Mitch Keller, Miguel Andujar, JT Brubaker, and David Bednar. Arbitration raises will somewhat increase that number. Andujar is not a competitive contender. Brubaker, who missed 2023 due to Tommy John surgery, will probably get the same $2.275MM as he did in that year. Bednar is only qualified to do this once. Keller’s pay of $2.4375 million for this year is expected to increase significantly.
The Pirates will likely only have about $30 million in total on the books even after deducting those raises, which is almost $43 million less than before they started the current season. That would undoubtedly leave plenty of space for expenditure, and if the team’s 2022 record improvements give owner Bob Nutting the confidence to raise salary a little, there might be even more funds available. Reuniting with McCutchen wouldn’t drastically reduce that payroll space, and the Bucs might even be able to sign some mid-tier free agents (or maybe sign some reliable players who are about to begin or are already in their arbitration years).
The priority at this time will be his recuperation. It makes sense that neither the team nor the player would want to discuss a contract until they had a better idea of how McCutchen would heal and recover. However, McCutchen has made it clear that he wants to finish his career in black and gold, and Cherington’s most recent remarks only help to increase the possibility that this will happen. McCutchen has said as much since he returned to Pittsburgh.
