Andrew McCutchen anticipated that he would get quite the outpouring from fans whenever he returned to the Pirates last year. After all, he got plenty of love in his years coming back as a visitor, so those early season ovations were almost inevitable.
The thing is that the cheers didn't slow down. McCutchen's return wasn't just a novelty. It was a homecoming that lasted all season.
"For them to show that appreciation and sustain it all season showed how awesome the fan base is to me, and the feeling is mutual," McCutchen said over Zoom Wednesday.
They'll get more chances to cheer in 2024, as McCutchen's one-year, $5 million contract was finalized Wednesday, ensuring that the franchise's face of the 21st century is staying put in the city he wants to eventually end his career. That won't be in 2024, though, as McCutchen said he has "at least two more" seasons in him.
And those seasons would be with the Pirates, if both parties have their way. McCutchen talked often last year how it wouldn't feel right to be in another jersey at this stage of his career. The Pirates feel the same way.
"In every discussion with Andrew, it was clear we both shared the same strong desire for him to remain a Pirate," Bob Nutting said in a released statement. "He is a tremendous person, player and teammate. He is an all-time great Pirates player who represents our city with a deep sense of pride. His presence in our lineup adn our clubhouse has had a significant impact on our young team. The way he plays the game on the field and carries himself in the community will continue to make all of us in the organization better."
So expect a lot more fan ovations for No. 22 for years to come.
"I anticipated it would be a good reaction," Ben Cherington said about the fan reaction for McCutchen last year. "I wasn't here before, [so] I probably didn't fully understand the relationship between Andrew and the city and the team. The reaction probably exceeded my expectations, really. It never really felt like it cooled off, like you said. A large part of that is because of who Andrew is, but a large part of that is he kept playing well. Kept actually helping the team, helping the team win games. It's easy for that reaction to stay positive when that's happening."
McCutchen enjoyed one fo the best seasons he's had in some time in 2023, recording a .256 batting average, 12 home runs, .776 OPS and 113 OPS+, the last of which was his best mark since 2019. It was really a tale of two halves, though.
For about half of last season, McCutchen looked close to his former All-Star self. An elbow injury forced him almost exclusively into the designated hitter role, but through June he had 10 home runs and an .854 OPS. His elbow injury got worse in a series against the Dodgers in early July and wound up hitting the injured list. From there, he posted a .646 OPS.
"When I was physically in a good place, it showed on the field," McCutchen said. "I dealt with some stuff. I dealt with some nagging little injuries that prevented me from being who I felt like I could have been for a full season. But, I was also able to battle through those and post up as best as I could. Being able to look back on that and see what I was able to do last season, I know going into this year, if I could just keep myself on the field and keep myself healthy, I think I’ll be able to be more consistent in a sense to where I may not be 2012 or ’13 Andrew McCutchen. But I can be a hybrid of what I was last year and be consistent and better than I was. That’s what I’m working on now."
That elbow wasn't the main concern health wise for McCutchen, though. That came in September when he partially tore his left achilles, ending his season. He's still got work and rehab to do between now and spring training, but Cherington said that he has "progressed exactly as we hoped."
For McCutchen, he's doing what he normally would at an offseason this time of year, like swinging, throwing and working out.
"We agreed that since we both wanted it to happen, that we could use time as our friend, hoping and expecting that we could get to the point in the offseason where, his recovery from the Achilles was less of a complication and less of a question," Cherington said. "It would make the conversation about the contract easier, simpler, and we wouldn’t have to figure out contingencies and things like that."
Ideally, a healthier version of McCutchen would be able to continue to contribute offensively and play the field more often after he was limited to just eight games last year. He added a lot to that clubhouse and on the field, which was important to him before he considered a Pirates reunion last winter. He didn't want to return just so he could be back. He wanted to help the team win, and after watching them within the division in 2022 as a member of the Brewers, he thought they were closer to becoming competitive than the general public did.
"He doesn't want to be a Pirate to be a hood ornament," Cherington said. "He wants to be a Pirate because he wants to be part of the team, win more games and help us get to that more competitive stage as quickly as he can. That's his sole focus at this point in his career."
The Pirates were able to compete at the start of the year and finished with a winning record over the last couple months, but a brutal stretch from May to mid-July extinguished any playoff hopes. The team has higher hopes for next year and have already made a handful of moves to improve the team, including signing Rowdy Tellez, trading for Marco Gonzales and finalizing a deal with Martín Pérez. It doesn't sound like Cherington is done adding, either.
"We would still like to add to the rotation," Cherington said. "I know I mentioned an optimistic possibility about one more that we’re pretty far along on [Pérez]. But even beyond that, we would like to add to the rotation. We would still like to add to our position player group also. We feel good that we can go into the season with the group we have, but we don’t want to be satisfied with that, either. We want to keep hunting for upside, both in the rotation and in the position-player group.
"We feel like there’s a lot of time left in the offseason, a lot of possibilities still out there, whether that’s free agency or trade. There are things we can do right now, things we could say yes to that we have not said yes to because we don’t yet like the deal. We’re gonna keep hunting opportunities."
A few more additions would surely help deepen the roster and improve their chances of winning, which is what McCutchen wants to do. But when asked about how much it would mean to be part of another winner in Pittsburgh, McCutchen took a different approach than just answering it directly.
"Development and rebuild's out of the window now," McCutchen said. "... There’s been enough seasoning, as far as from a club standpoint, the main eight, nine guys in the lineup to where it’s like, ‘All right, let’s put on our big-boy pants and get to work.’ It’s in a place to where we can do that."
Translation: It's time to take another step forward. Signed, a player who knows what that takes.
