Ben Cherington is aware one of his most celebrated moves this offseason could be his most controversial for the Pittsburgh Pirates, considering what the writing on the wall means for a franchise great.
By agreeing to a one-year contract worth $12 million with free-agent slugger Marcell Ozuna, the general manager knows it could spell the end of Andrew McCutchen’s playing days for the Pirates.
Given that McCutchen, 39, is a former National League MVP and five-time All-Star who was the catalyst of three consecutive wild-card playoff teams from 2013-15, it’s been a complicated end process.
“As far as I’m concerned, Andrew will always be a Pirate,” Cherington said Tuesday afternoon in a Grapefruit League Media Day video conference call. “I think most people feel that way. I certainly speak for the organization, and that’s how we feel — that, no matter what, Andrew is a Pirate — and certainly our desire will be to continue to have a really strong relationship with him into the future, whatever that looks like.”
When he officially signs, pending a physical, the 35-year-old Ozuna will replace McCutchen as the designated hitter. Cherington wouldn’t completely rule out the chance for McCutchen to return, but the Pirates are planning to start spring training without him when pitchers and catchers report Wednesday to Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla.
“I think this is a moment in time. I think there is a long time ahead of us. Forever is a long time,” Cherington said. “The Pirates will never shut the door, completely shut the door, on Andrew McCutchen. That’s how we feel about him. That’s not going to happen.”
This isn’t the first bad breakup between McCutchen and the Pirates, who traded him to the San Francisco Giants in January 2018 for a deal that included eventual two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds. Since returning to the Pirates as a free agent in 2023 after a five-year hiatus, McCutchen has made it clear his intention was to finish his career with the team that drafted and developed him.
With the Pirates, he’s had the best seasons of a decorated 17-year career in which he has 2,266 hits, 332 home runs and 1,152 RBIs and ranks in the franchise’s top 10 all-time in most major offensive categories.
Despite a dip in production last season, when he had a .239/.333/.367 slash line with 22 doubles, 13 home runs and 57 RBIs, McCutchen has been outspoken on social media that he wants to continue playing and feels insulted by the team’s treatment this offseason.
“There’s more work to do and I’m not done, no matter what label you try to stamp on me,” McCutchen posted on his official X account Jan. 24, hours after being excluded from the Pirates’ annual fan festival at David L. Lawrence Convention Center. “Rip the jersey off of me.”
Cherington said he spoke to McCutchen at the beginning of the offseason and shared “that we felt like we needed to go into the offseason with a singular mindset, and that was what put this team in the best position to win more games in 2026.”
Cherington said his focus was on the team but that “we did the best we could” to share information with McCutchen amid the roster-building process.
The Pirates took big swings in free agency, most notably by offering a reported four-year, $125 million contract to slugger Kyle Schwarber. They eventually traded for two-time All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe and signed All-Star first baseman/outfielder/DH Ryan O’Hearn to a two-year, $29 million free-agent deal. After another miss, this time on third baseman Eugenio Suarez, the Pirates landed Ozuna.
“Of course, we can always look back and reflect on communication. There’s always ways to make it better, but that was our mindset going into the offseason that really guided every decision that we’ve made,” Cherington said. “I feel confident that every decision we’ve made has been about what we believe is best for the team. And, sometimes, when you are making those decisions, they’re going to be hard. Some of those decisions are hard, and I think that, again, that’s the nature of these things. Tremendous respect for Andrew, and certainly our desire would be to have a strong relationship with him going forward. Right now, obviously focused on the guys that are here in Bradenton and getting ready to prepare for a season.”
Complicating matters is that the Pirates are preparing to part ways with the most popular player of the PNC Park era — and a 2015 Roberto Clemente Award winner for exceptional on-field performance and extensive community involvement — and replace him with a player who missed the Atlanta Braves’ 2021 World Series run after being placed on administrative leave by MLB following a domestic violence incident.
Ozuna was found in violation of the Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy following an arrest for a dispute with his wife in May 2021 that resulted in felony aggravated assault by strangulation charges being filed. They were later dropped, and he completed an intervention program and retroactively received a 20-game suspension. In May 2022, Ozuna was arrested for driving under the influence. He later pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving.
Cherington explained in detail why he made the recommendation for the Pirates to sign Ozuna to a major deal.
“First of all, behavior that would lead any sort of consequence — suspension, etc. — is unacceptable, the behavior itself that leads to those things is unacceptable and not tolerated, not part of our culture, just period,” Cherington said. “When those things have happened in an individual’s past, we’re doing as much work as we possibly can to assess the situation as a whole — what the details of that case are, then also what’s happened since then, what’s the behavior been since then, not just from the individual but from the perspective of people who have been around that individual. And ultimately we make an assessment on, ‘Is this person someone who will come into our environment and contribute positively?’ In some cases, we’ve decided we’re comfortable making that bet and we’re recommending that. In some cases, we’ve decided that we’re not. Obviously those cases we don’t hear about because we didn’t make those calls. It can happen both ways. It is case-by-case.
“In Ozuna’s case, I would say it’s three things: First, you start with what happened, learning as much as you can about that. Obviously, there was a consequence he suffered for that; 100% support for the league’s program around that. Then you go to, ‘How did he respond to that?’ Accountability from public reports and also what we could glean from our due diligence. He was accountable, responsible, remorseful. Then you get to the behavior since. Who has this person been? In this case in the Braves environment, since then. All the information we got around there — from teammates, staff, others — led us to the conclusion that this is someone we want to bring into our environment and believe can make a positive contribution.”
Ozuna had 40 homers and 100 RBIs in 2023 and batted .302/.378/.546 with 39 homers and 104 RBIs the following season, earning an All-Star selection for the third time in his 13-year career. He took a step backward last season, batting .232 with 21 homers and 68 RBIs while dealing with a hip injury that caused his batting average to dip below the Mendoza Line from June through August.
Although Ozuna won a Gold Glove in left field in 2017, he has served strictly as designated hitter the past two seasons. Pirates manager Don Kelly has publicly discussed plans to have the DH available for players to rotate through, but Cherington said he thinks it will be a combination.
“Certainly, we feel better about the depth of the lineup, the ability to not just get offense out of the DH spot, but different spots on the field. And trust that we have a group of players, group of veteran players, who are going to be aware of the need to occasionally take a day or use a DH day,” Cherington said. “It will require some adjustments from some of them, certainly defensively and where they are on the field, but we’ve had good conversations about that and confident in the group’s ability to do that.”
It puts Kelly in an awkward position entering his first spring training as Pirates manager after replacing Derek Shelton last May 8. Kelly is a former teammate of both players, with McCutchen in the Pirates’ system in 2007 and Ozuna with the Miami Marlins in 2015-16.
“He’s unbelievable, man,” Kelly said of Ozuna. “When you talk about a fierce competitor that enjoys the game of baseball, has fun playing the game of baseball and knows that he’s a really good hitter and very confident, he’s going to be a big presence to bring in. I enjoyed the time that I got to spend with him and in Miami as a teammate, and really pumped that he’s a Pirate this year.”
On the flip side, as a Mt. Lebanon and Point Park alum, Kelly knows what McCutchen has meant to the Pirates and the City of Pittsburgh and has to contend with the challenge of potentially parting ways with a franchise icon who might not complete his career on his own terms.
“Cutch is always going to be a Pirate in everyone’s heart,” Kelly said on the Grapefruit League conference call. “Respect him and everything that he means to the team and the city. Not sure exactly where this goes.”
