Memo to the Pirates: Did You Forget That Andrew McCutchen Is a Person?

What the Pittsburgh Pirates are doing to Andrew McCutchen is not illegal. It’s at least unjust, though, and throw immoral in there, too. The Pirates seem to have forgotten that McCutchen is a human being.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have always seemed content to fly under the baseball radar. At times, it was hard to remember they were even there, except for the two or three times a season they would appear on a nationwide broadcast. Occasionally, they put together a pretty good team and they would have a couple of near misses for a playoff spot. But for the most part, they were just “there.”

Andrew McCutchen Shows the Pirates How It’s Done

That’s all changed now. And the display they are putting on by saying one thing and doing another is reminiscent of Richard Nixon telling us, “I am not a crook.” Except that Nixon taught us something, because nowadays we can recognize a crook when we see one. And we know doublespeak when we hear it.

Yesterday, true to form and being the professional that he is, Andrew McCutchen showed up at the annual PirateFest to greet fans and sign autographs. Generally, these are always “feel good” events and teams use them to introduce newly acquired players and sell tickets. But yesterday’s gathering of the faithful had a foul odor. And it wasn’t Andrew McCutchen who caused it.

The Pirates are acting like the drug dealer who puts a sign on his lawn that says, “I’m a drug dealer. I’ll take your calls starting right now.” Speaking to ESPN, here is what GM Neil Huntington says about how the Pirates operate:

“Our intent coming in here was to have Andrew McCutchen be in our lineup going forward. No one changed that. It’s unlikely someone changes that going forward. We’re not going to close the door, but we’re not going to be making calls … We took calls. We listened. We engaged. And not just on Andrew but on other players who are on one- or two-year contracts. As we will always do, if we find the right move and we believe the right move is to move the player, we’ll move the player. If we believe the right move is to hold the player, then we’ll hold the player.”

Did you understand a word he said? However, it was very easy to understand what he didn’t say. Which is that “Andrew McCutchen is a Pirate for as long as he wants to be and there’s no way in hell we would ever trade him.” Or maybe he could have said, “Look, we are a small market team and every once in a while we need to replenish the stock of young talent in our system. And as much as I hate to say this, it’s very likely that I’ll need to trade Andrew McCutchen in order to accomplish that”.

Remember Willie Stargell and “We Are Family”

That’s all. Just say it. We’re a family and there are no family secrets that we can’t talk openly about.

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For Andrew McCutchen, he sounded totally exasperated and tired of the whole thing when he told ESPN at PirateFest, “I’d be lying to you if I told you none of this bothered me. Of course it did. I’m human.”

And that’s the part the Pirates seem to be forgetting, or even worse, ignoring. Andrew McCutchen is a human being. And he was probably being overly polite by using the word “bothered” instead of irate, or saying that he’s totally fed up with this sorry excuse of a baseball franchise – and get me outta here as soon as you can- pretty please.

It’s not fun, even as just a fan of baseball, to stand by watching while a franchise disintegrates and embarrasses themselves as the Pirates are doing. And it would seem that a quietly placed phone call from Joe Torre on behalf of MLB is in order. The message being, “Look, if you’re gonna trade him, that’s your business. But if you insist on making a spectacle of it, that’s my business.”

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There were times when the Pirates took their cue from players like Willie Stargell, who preached, “We Are Family.” And there was Roberto Clemente, who gave his life fulfilling a humanitarian mission. That’s the way it used to be. And the Pirates need to regroup because what you’re doing – it ain’t working.