McCutchen unlikely to finish career with Pirates
Three thoughts on the Pirates:
1. McCutchen鈥檚 long-term future
This can be placed in the clip-and-save file or, to be more modern, the take-a-screenshot file.
In a USA TODAY story this past week, Pirates owner Bob Nutting said this to Bob Nightengale, the newspaper鈥檚 baseball columnist, about star center fielder Andrew McCutchen:
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure we鈥檙e allowed to sign lifetime agreements, but I鈥檇 love to see him stay with us forever. He鈥檚 been remarkable for the game, and for Pittsburgh, on-and-off-the field.鈥�
It鈥檚 a nice thought but it鈥檚 not going to happen. McCutchen isn鈥檛 going to be like Honus Wanger, Roberto Clemente or Willie Stargell and spend his entire career in a Pirates鈥� uniform.
The 29-year-old McCutchen is under contract through 2017 and the Pirates hold an extremely affordable 鈥� for a player of his caliber 鈥� $14.75-million club option for 2018 that they can buy out for just $1 million.
Assuming the Pirates exercise the option, McCuthen will have earned $65 million over the first 10 years of his career at the end of the 2018 season. That will have turned out to be a great deal for the team because McCutchen has already been much more valuable.
McCutchen has accumulated 38.2 WAR (wins above replacement) in his career, according to baseball-reference.com. Considering one point of WAR is worth generally $6 million, he has been provided just under $232 million in production.
Though McCutchen would be 32 following the 2018 season, he is going to want paid like a star, which is his right. However, he almost certainly will be in the decline phase of his career.
Furthermore, top prospect Austin Meadows will be the center fielder at Class AA Altoona this year, putting him on track to become McCutchen鈥檚 potential successor.
The Pirates have never overpaid a player on a long-term contract since Nutting took over the team prior to 2007, which is good business sense. You can be assured that he will not make an exception, even for a franchise icon, regardless of his sentiments at the moment.
2. Ought to sign Cotts
The Pirates are likely to have a strong bullpen again this season but the loss of Antonio Bastardo to the New York Mets in free agency Friday leaves them with Tony Watson as the only left-hander currently projected to make the opening-day relief corps.
The free agent market has been picked pretty clean but Neal Cotts would be a good fit. The 35-year-old had a 3.41 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 63 1/3 innings for the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins last season while striking out 8.3 and walking 3.1 per nine innings.
3. Neverett鈥檚 replacement
The Pirates are expected to announce the replacement for play-by-play broadcaster Tim Neverett sometime this week and will reportedly choose from a strong field of candidates.
Neverett joined the Boston Red Sox鈥檚 radio team earlier this month. It provides a chance to go home to his native New England and is a wonderful opportunity for a real pro.