At a Crossroads: The Pittsburgh Pirates
This article is one that hits close to home as I have been a Pirates fan the entirety of my 19 years. If you ask me about any trade or signing the Pirates have made in the last 15 years or so(I can only remember so far back) I can tell you anything you want to know about it. Knowing that my team is in a small market team is hard. First off, they won’t get a big free agent because they are a “small market team.” They won’t trade the farm for a guy that might put them over the hump(they were linked to Giancarlo Stanton in like 2013 before he got that massive deal.) Then when they groom a guy in the minors and he makes it to the Majors you start to cling to him and never want to lose him.
Lets just say this team has broken my heart more than once. I’ll start with the fact that for the longest time, bobble-heads were a joke for the Pirates. It seemed to me during my years as a young kid that I was always excited to go to the bobble-head giveaway games. Those were the best, until about a week later when that moron GM Dave Littlefield would trade the guy away. I was so devastated after the Brian Giles trade, at the time he was my favorite player and I had his bobble-head. This also happened for a couple other Pirates players that weren’t quite on the Giles level. It got to the point where it was a joke that wasn’t even funny anymore as I felt like everyday they traded someone away(not literally only figuratively.) Then came the dreaded Jason Bay trade, when that happened I thought to myself that it couldn’t possibly happen more than once, but it did. Of course this only was able to happen because Bay was acquired as part of the return in the Giles trade, when the Giles trade happened I didn’t understand the whole prospect of trades. But then Bay was traded and it felt like a member of my family had died. I couldn’t handle it and it effected me for at least a week. Looking back on it now I would’ve appreciated these trades more had they gotten anything back for the players. In the Giles trade the only thing they really got back was Bay. Then in the Bay trade they got pretty much nobody back as non of the prospects panned out. That also was kind of the end of Bay’s career as he played about a season and a half with the Red Sox and then he fell off the face of the Earth. At this point I was just kind of numb to the Pirates dealings to the point where I didn’t really try to get attached to anybody and just kind of watched them play and hoped for the best. Then came along another intriguing Pirates prospect. That prospect was none other than Andrew McCutchen. He rapidly climbed through the minors and made his major league debut with the Pirates on June 4th, 2009.
Since McCutchen has joined the Pirates he has been not only the best player but also the bona fide leader of the team. Cutch, as he is called by fans and teammates alike, has done everything asked of him and more. He has helped guide Pittsburgh to winning seasons and playoff berths alike in his time with the Pirates. This started when the team made the playoffs in 2013, this was the first time in 20+ years that the team made the playoffs. Then they made the playoffs again in 2014 and 2015. As all Pirates fans and many MLB followers know, McCutchen is officially in a contract year. This makes all Pirates fan and me especially cringe. We cringe because we have no idea what the team will do with McCutchen. Will they trade him? If they keep him, will they extend him? The thing about that is that the GM Neal Huntington has gone on record saying that this teams best lineup has Andrew McCutchen in center. He said this following the season in which they tried to tell Andrew that he was no longer a center fielder. They tried to play him in right field until Starling Marte was suspended for PEDs. That in itself was a blessing I think because Cutch being back in center mended things. Cutch has said many times that he wants to play his entire career in Pittsburgh, and I don’t think management understands that. I feel that when a player of his caliber says that he wants to stay somewhere, especially after all he’s done for the team and the city, that you honor that. I get very heated about this because I don’t think the organization understands the catastrophe they will be in if they do something foolish with McCutchen. Andrew likes Pittsburgh and the Pirates so much that he named his newborn son Steele, as Pittsburgh is know as the Steel City.
The Pirates are in a situation where if they trade him or let him go the fan base will let them know what they’ve done and it will not be good at all. The truth of the matter is that its either prospect Austin Meadows, he isn’t proved at all, or McCutchen. To me, it is obviously that they need to resign McCutchen and I think that all Pirates fans would agree with me. The team already received backlash when they traded second basemen Neil Walker a couple of offseasons ago for basically a bag of peanuts. Word is they have some interest in Walker from what I’ve heard and I think they need to bring the Pittsburgh Kid back while also extending the face of the franchise Cutch. I think a deal in the range of 4 years and about 56 million is fair for a player of Cutch’s caliber. I would go as far as to say that he warrants a 4 yr/$60 million dollar deal from the Pirates. The bottom line is that is that the Pirates have burned themselves trading guys like McCutchen and I think they should honor what he has done for the club. We all know that some Pirates prospects haven’t panned out and I don’t think the Pirates can take that chance anymore. The fact that Gregory Polanco isn’t exactly doing what is expect even more adds to me wanting the Pirates to resign McCutchen long-term. Even if the Pirates end up selling off assets I think they need to keep Cutch in the fold because he could mentor the younger guys and to this point they are being unrealistic with trade demands for him and they won’t get a return that is nearly good enough compared to what McCutchen is worth. Guys like him don’t come around often for an organization like the Pirates and I think they need to write him a blank check and start from there. This team can contend next year because they can’t possibly play like they did last year. Things will come around, the pitching will only get more experienced which will pay dividends for the rotation and the bullpen. With a few key additions this team is not a 74 win team or however many wins this team had. I feel this team can be just as good as the Diamondbacks or Rockies were this year. I don’t expect to win the division every year but I think they are a capable Wild Card team. Without Andrew McCutchen this team may be a 50 or 55 win team at tops and that is generous I feel. My opinion doesn’t much matter but I think the Pirates need to think about the fans in this situation and see that it really is in the best interest of the organization to keep Andrew McCutchen around for the remainder of his career. How are you going to do him dirty after everything he’s done for you? He’s won an MVP and who’s to say the Pirates make the playoffs in 2013–2015 if he hadn’t been on the team. Again, he named his son Steele McCutchen, if that doesn’t speak to you then I don’t know what does.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference
