Pirates Dealing McCutchen STILL Doesn't Make Sense

It was just two weeks ago I wrote a piece that basically said the Pirates must be out of their minds for even thinking about dealing Andrew McCutchen. But now it appears imminent that McCutchen’s days with the Pirates are numbered, and the numbers are measured in days and not weeks. And now that a deal is real, are the Pirates doing what’s best for the franchise, or are still just plumb loco?

Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates are like Tom Brady and the Patriots, or Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers. Because when we think of either team, their names are the ones that come to mind. And for the last eight years, Andrew McCutchen has been synonymous with the franchise of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The face of the team, the leader in the clubhouse, the one out front selling tickets and doing charity work.

And until last season’s off-year stats-wise, McCutchen was consistently ranked in the top five of the MLB.com players rankings. He has a lifetime batting average of .292 and a .381 on-base percentage, and he won the NL Most Valuable Player award in 2013. And we could go on and on with the achievements and accolades, but the fact remains that he is outward bound from the Pirates organization. Why that appears to be his fate is the elephant-in-the-room question that everyone is asking.

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It’s a given that the Pirates are a small market franchise. The population of Pittsburgh is estimated to be 306,500 people, with a metro area that has a population of 2.36 million. With the collapse of industry in the area, the city has gone from being #8 to #65 in the rankings of the most populous cities in America.

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In terms of attendance, the Pirates rank just below the median in baseball at #18, drawing an average of 28,000 fans per night. And at the same time, there’s no local TV deal paying $100M+ per year like for the Dodgers and some other teams. The Pirates don’t own their own regional sports network, they don’t have exorbitant ticket and food prices, and they don’t get a cut of parking revenues.

But if you’re thinking that these are all good reasons for the Pirates to trade Andrew McCutchen, hold on, not so fast. Because the Pirates have been one of the most frugal teams in baseball. While it is true that the Pirates have one of the lowest revenues of all teams ($227 million), they also have the third lowest percentage of that revenue spent on players payroll (38 percent). Compare that with the Tigers and Dodgers who use nearly 70 percent of their income to pay their players, and you can see that we have the makings of a problem when the Pirates claim poverty connected to their “need” to trade McCutchen.

Andew McCutchen Is A Bargain To Boot

Add to that the fact that McCutchen is only due a total of $28.75 million over the next two years and things get even hazier. To put that in perspective, the qualifying offer extended to players this year was $17.2 million. And journeyman pitcher Charlie Morton, with a career record of 49-71, just signed a two-year deal for $14 million. Andrew McCutchen is not exactly breaking the Pirates’ bank.

So maybe what this is, if there’s any sense to be made by it, is that the Pirates have simply decided to trade McCutchen come hell or high water. And maybe it’s simply like the couple who decide to get divorced but stumble when friends and family ask them why they are doing it, offering only, “Well, we just are, that’s all.”

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Because other than that, it’s still hard to find a viable reason why the Pirates are bent on trading Andrew McCutchen.

And like the divorce, it’s reached the point of being inevitable and logic gets thrown to the wind. And one can only hope that both husband and wife find happiness in a new life, and the Pirates especially will not look back wishing they had done things differently back in December of 2016.

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