Pirates re-sign fan favorite Andrew McCutchen to 1-year, $5M deal

Cutch is coming back for another season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and fan favorite Andrew McCutchen agreed to a one-year contract Tuesday to bring the free-agent designated hitter/outfielder back on another one-year, $5 million contract to play his 16th major-league season, a source confirmed to TribLive.

The Pirates haven’t announced the move but posted a video showing McCutchen from behind walking through the tunnel toward the home clubhouse at PNC Park.

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— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) December 19, 2023

The five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP suffered a season-ending injury with a slight tear of his left Achilles tendon while rounding second base in the fifth inning of a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 4 at PNC Park.

Since returning to the Pirates last January following a five-year hiatus after being traded to the San Francisco Giants in January 2018 — and subsequently playing for the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Brewers — McCutchen had voiced his intention to continue playing and his preference to do so with the Pirates.

“That’s the expectation, right? I’ve vocalized that plenty of times about wanting to be here. It’s not gonna feel right anywhere else,” said McCutchen, 37, who lives in the North Hills. “At the end of the day, I have to make the right decisions for myself, for my family. Whatever happens here, in the future, it’s indicative of that.”

McCutchen returned to the Pirates as a free agent last January on a one-year, $5 million contract and batted .256/.378/.397 with 19 doubles, 12 home runs and 43 RBIs in 112 games last season. He surpassed several milestones by getting his 2,000th career hit, 1,000th walk and 400th double but finished with 299 career homers, one shy of becoming the 13th active player to reach the 300-home run plateau.

McCutchen was happy about his strong start but disappointed with the way his season ended in early September.

“For myself, personally, it was a decent year,” said McCutchen, who batted .237 with 25 doubles, 17 homers and 69 RBIs in 134 games with Milwaukee in 2022. “I had some expectations going into this season. I just wanted to be better than I was last year. I felt like last year wasn’t who I was as a player. I felt like I was better than that, and I believe I was able to showcase that on the field. The numbers did improve. The homers weren’t there like I wanted them to be considering how I started the season. Things happen. We all adjust and have nagging injuries here and there. You have to battle through them. That’s pretty much what I did. No excuses. I just went out there and kept playing and grinding away. It was a good year, a decent year for me.”

A first-round draft pick (No. 11 overall) in 2005, McCutchen was the catalyst in helping the Pirates end a two-decade streak of losing seasons by reaching three consecutive wild-card playoff berths from 2013-15. He finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2009 and was selected to the first of five consecutive All-Star Games in 2011.

The Pirates signed McCutchen to a six-year, $51.5 million contract in April 2012, and he responded by adding a Gold Glove and the first of four consecutive Silver Slugger awards. He was named NL MVP after leading the Pirates to a 94-win season and a wild-card win over the Cincinnati Reds in 2013.

Over the three-year playoff run, McCutchen averaged a .303/.405/.512 slash line and hit 69 homers with 263 RBIs. His batting average dipped to .256 in 2017, when he balked at being temporarily shifted from center field to right and moved to the second spot in the batting order.

The Pirates traded McCutchen to the Giants for pitcher Kyle Crick and outfielder Bryan Reynolds, who became an All-Star in 2021 and a franchise cornerstone when he signed an eight-year, $106.75 million contract last April.

McCutchen was expected to start in right field last season but was bothered by a sore right elbow last spring and played only seven games there. He was used primarily as a DH, starting 97 of his 112 games in that role. McCutchen batted third in 72 games, leadoff 22 times and second 10 times.

His return to PNC Park wearing No. 22 in black and gold proved cathartic to Pirates fans, who gave him rousing cheers all season but especially the sellout crowd of 39,167 at the home opener against the Chicago White Sox on April 7.

The Pirates started 20-9, had the best record in the National League at the end of April and spent 33 days in first place in the NL Central by mid-June. Attendance increased from 1,257,458 in 2022 to 1,630,624 last season, a boost of an average of 4,607 per game.

“There are a lot of things outside of the game itself and the way that I played that I was really excited about,” McCutchen said. “One, just coming back here and being back here, getting the love from the fans every single day at home when I went up to bat. Those cheers never died down. They were always loud, and it was always good to feel that from them.”

Throughout the offseason, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington maintained that bringing back McCutchen was a priority. Pirates president Travis Williams echoed that sentiment last week by saying that McCutchen “being part of the Pirates, back in the black and gold where he belongs” helped bring excitement back to PNC Park and boost television ratings last season.

“It couldn’t have gone really better,” Cherington said in November on MLB Network’s Hot Stove show from the general manager meetings. “I didn’t get a chance to be around Cutch during his first time in Pittsburgh. Obviously, respected him so much as a player from across the field. Dynamic, one of best players in the game during that time. When the opportunity arose last season, got a chance to talk to Andrew about coming back. It just made too much sense. We were so lucky, really, to be able to do it.

“The reaction from fans, the team, himself, people that work for the team for a long time and have been there, it was just amazing. Credit to him for just how important it was to him, how genuinely he wanted to come back. I think we all hope that we can continue that. We’ll keep the dialogue open with him. I’ve had several conversations with him since the season ended. Finished the season on the IL. He’s recovering from that but certainly hope that Andrew can keep wearing black and gold.”