Jason Mackey: The return of Andrew McCutchen is fine, but Pirates' plight involves much more

Jason Mackey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dec 24, 2024

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — For the first time in his incredible career, the news of Andrew McCutchen returning to the Pirates did not elicit immediate and utter elation from fans.

Some made jokes about McCutchen's age (38). Others wondered what it meant for younger players who might see fewer plate appearances.

Then there was the obvious vitriol regarding the Pirates' quiet (and frustrating) offseason, when they've dangled Jared Jones and Mitch Keller, added a first baseman nobody knows and there's been talk about the payroll dropping. (It'll finish in the $85 million-$90 million range.)

But here's the thought I haven't been able to shake when it comes to McCutchen returning on a one-year, $5 million deal: Only a portion of their current plight really involves him. It also better work, as fans and most with the team passed restless long ago.

I actually don't have a problem with the Pirates bringing McCutchen back. He wanted to play another year, hit 20 home runs and posted a .739 OPS. Fine. They've certainly employed worse. McCutchen has also built up enough capital here that he deserves at least some say in how this ends.

And, yes, my stipulation would absolutely be that this is it, whether it's announced publicly or not.

The question facing the Pirates, though, is far bigger than a player who could end up as a part-time DH by the end of this thing.

Taking a positive view, it would provide an incredible coda to McCutchen's career, the most popular Pirate since Barry Bonds resuscitating them twice a dozen years apart. It's possible — and yes, I'm sober. Maybe overcaffeinated. But sober.

The Pirates were 56-54 through 100 games last year. That's not a fluke. It's also not a small sample size. They did that with a bottom-tier offense, highlighted by nothing from Jack Suwinski, Henry Davis and Ke'Bryan Hayes. Oneil Cruz could also way outperform his 2.5 bWAR season in 2025.

Suwinski, Davis and Hayes can and must be better, the same for David Bednar and Colin Holderman.

Meanwhile, the strength of the Pirates remains their young arms: Paul Skenes, Jones, Keller, Bailey Falter, Johan Oviedo, Mike Burrows, Bubba Chandler, Thomas Harrington and Braxton Ashcraft.

Which is why, again, I couldn't bring myself to get too excited or upset with the news of McCutchen re-signing. I expected it to happen. Success or failure with this team will be determined by so much more.

The stakes are bigger, too, and they undoubtedly start with Skenes, this generation's version of McCutchen.

It's his team now. He's become the face of the Pirates, the player the team promotes and almost assuredly their guaranteed representative at the MLB All-Star Game, a trip McCutchen used to make.

They're also different personalities.

Not that Skenes is obnoxious — he's very much not — but do you think he'll stay quiet if the Pirates accept mediocrity or don't try to put a winning team on the field during pretty much every second he's here? I don't.

The guy stops at nothing to prepare and challenge himself. Why wouldn't he hold the Pirates to the same standard? (And again, not that McCutchen was cool with losing. He's just always been a little quieter about that sort of stuff.)

On the outside, fans are upset (and reasonably so) because they see other teams spending on free-agent needs, whether it's Tyler O'Neill, Michael Conforto, Max Kepler, Paul Goldschmidt or Christian Walker, and they see the Pirates giving up three pitchers, including two top-20 prospects, for Spencer Horwitz.

From a traditional business standpoint, it certainly looks ugly, those players carrying far better reputations than Horwitz.

But here's something you probably didn't expect: Those five players had an average OPS+ (100 is considered average) of 111.6. Horwitz was at 125 last year in Toronto. The only player better than him in that group was O'Neill (132).

Now, that's not an endorsement of the Pirates' (lack of) spending. It's merely saying there are unique ways of obtaining talent, channels these Pirates have yet to master on the hitting side.

McCutchen isn't really part of that discussion. The others are. The same for getting more out of Nick Gonzales, Jared Triolo, Endy Rodriguez, Billy Cook, Liover Peguero or Nick Yorke.

Yes, it would be great if the Pirates spent more. That's always true. But two of their top three end-of-season payrolls from 2013-15 failed to eclipse $78 million, a blueprint based on cheap labor outperforming their contracts that the Pirates are looking to replicate in 2025.

Will it work? I don't know. But that concept has less to do with McCutchen and means infinity more relative to Skenes, especially when it comes to maximizing the current window and not irritating your most popular player because you're somehow not competitive.

In other words, if all the Pirates plan to do is sign a 38-year-old DH for $5 million, they damn well better get the other questions on the test right.