This morning the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they’ve reached a six-year contract extension with All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen. The deal, which is pending physical, will pay McCutchen $51.5 million over the six years. The Pirates have the power to make it a seven-year deal, as they also hold a $14.75 million club option.
Prior to the 2011 season, most around the league regarded McCutchen as a solid major leaguer. However, last year was the 25-year-old’s coming out party, as McCutchen posted the numbers most have been expecting from the former top prospect.
Playing in 158 games for the Pirates, McCutchen hit at a clip of .259/.364/.456 with 23 home runs, 34 doubles, 89 RBI’s and 23 stolen bases over his 678 plate appearances in 2011. This earned McCutchen his first All-Star appearance.
McCutchen’s abilities in the field, at the plate and on the bases allowed him to finish the year with MLB’s 20th best fWAR (5.7). To give you an idea of where this ranks McCutchen among MLB’s elite, his mark of 5.7 tied him with Texas Rangers slugger Adrian Beltre and placed him a tick higher than New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano and the Detroit Tigers newest slugger, Prince Fielder.
McCutchen is one of the key young players the Pirates have accumulated over recent years, and they’ve been targeting an extension with the young center fielder for some time. Preliminary talks between the Pirates and McCutchen’s agent began last May. From the beginning McCutchen has made it clear that he’d like to remain in Pittsburgh.
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