The Pirates Did Andrew McCutchen Wrong This Winter

This winter, there has been a significant amount of excitement surrounding the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team has finally begun to make meaningful moves in both free agency and trade, which has put them in discussions around the league for something other than Paul Skenes’ greatness.

Although they’ve done well at acquiring talent and rebuilding their offense into a solid group, they haven’t been perfect overall. These moves have come at a cost, as the Pirates’ front office has soured the relationship with one of the organization’s greatest players, Andrew McCutchen.

When McCutchen returned to the club in 2023, it was one of the more positive stories around an overall rough year for the Bucs. This has been the case for most of the seasons he has donned the black and gold, as he’s constantly been someone to inspire hope in the team at its lowest moments.

Now that the team is finally in a place where they could compete again, the Pirates have handled McCutchen’s role with a surprising lack of clarity and respect. Instead of ensuring that a franchise icon would be part of this new chapter in a meaningful way, the front office has potentially ruined this relationship in a way that will have significant long-term consequences.

For a player who carried the organization through its darkest stretch, restored pride to PNC Park, and helped usher in the last era of postseason baseball in Pittsburgh, this is painful to see. As the Pirates push toward relevance, the way they’ve treated McCutchen this winter has cast a shadow over what should be one of the most hopeful offseasons in recent memory.

Evaluating the Situation

In order to truly grasp why this situation has unfolded in the way it has, we have to take a look at the bigger picture and what the Pirates needed to do this winter. After fielding an offense that posted a team wRC+ of just 82 with 117 homers as a group, the number one priority was improving the offense in any way possible.

Since the beginning of the offseason, the Pirates expressed that they were casting a wide net in order to improve. Whether it was trying to chase down big-time free agents such as Kyle Schwarber or making much smaller deals that could net an impactful return, they didn’t set any constraints for themselves.

With this being the organizational motto, they did just that. The Pirates acquired multiple significant bats via trade and free agency, not putting position over production along the way. However, in the process, it became more and more difficult to see a reality for Andrew McCutchen to return to the club.

It’s important to note that McCutchen was far from a bad hitter last season, but he wasn’t good, either. In 135 games, he blasted 13 homers and slashed .239/.333/.367 with a 95 wRC+. This production is certainly still big league-caliber, but it isn’t good enough for an everyday role on a team that’s looking for an offensive overhaul.

The other issue with McCutchen’s production is that he spent 120 of his 135 games at the designated hitter position, a role he’s almost exclusively played since he returned to Pittsburgh.

Among all qualified designated hitters last season, McCutchen finished 22nd out of 23 hitters in wRC+ and homers, just barely edging out the last-place finishers in both numbers. In fact, of these 23 hitters, McCutchen and Agustin Ramirez were the only two hitters to finish with a wRC+ under 100, which speaks to the little production the Pirates were getting from their franchise icon.

Despite this, McCutchen does do some things quite well. He’s still elite at drawing walks and limiting his chases, but it’s slim pickings outside of that. He posted league-average metrics across the board aside from these two areas.

McCutchen has repeatedly signed one-year deals to return to Pittsburgh over the last few seasons, always leaving a small possibility that the reunion could end at some point. However, it almost felt like a guarantee that he’d repeat these deals until he was ready to hang up the spikes, but this hasn’t been the case in 2026.

Seeing that they needed to add some thump to the DH spot in their lineup, the Pirates found this production elsewhere on the free agent market. They inked Marcell Ozuna to a one-year deal worth 10.5 million with a mutual option for 2027.

With Ozuna slugging 21 homers in addition to a 114 wRC+ in 2025, this seemed like a perfect fit on the surface. But, with this being the case, Ozuna has likely taken McCutchen’s role for the 2026 Pirates. From a baseball perspective, it makes sense. But McCutchen will never be just a baseball player to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and that’s caused this to be a tough pill to swallow.

How Could the Pirates Have Handled This Better?

Now that we’ve taken a look at the situation as a whole and what went into the decision to explore other options than McCutchen, it’s time to do some reflection on the Pirates and see how they could’ve handled this better.

Judging purely off McCutchen’s posts on X throughout this offseason, the team has done quite a poor job of communicating its intentions with him. On January 11th, McCutchen posted a GIF of someone waiting for a phone call, signaling that he’s had little communication with the club all winter.