“Of course, this is where I want to be,” Andrew McCutchen tells MLB.com’s Bill Ladson amidst trade rumors that have swirled around the Pirates star for the better part of a year. “I’ve never thought about anything else. This is the only uniform that I’ve ever worn. This is somewhere I want to be. I can’t control the business side — where I am or whatnot. I don’t focus on that.” After a rough 2016 season and a slow start to 2017, McCutchen has been hot over the last couple of weeks as he tries to help keep the Bucs afloat in a crowded NL Central race. While the Pirates are 26-32 and in last place, they’re still only 4.5 games out of first place.
Here’s more from around the division…
- The Brewers announced that right-hander Matt Garza has been placed on the 10-day DL (retroactive to June 4) with a chest contusion. Garza had an abbreviated four-inning start on Saturday after colliding with teammate Jesus Aguilar at first base when both were trying to make a fielding play. After a couple of rough seasons, Garza is posting some solid results this year, with a 3.83 ERA, 2.75 K/BB rate and 6.6 K/9 over 44 2/3 IP for Milwaukee.
- As part of a Cardinals-related chat with readers, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch figures the Cards would prefer to make a trade relatively soon if one could be found, rather than wait until closer to the July 31 trade deadline to add reinforcements. A big trade that costs the Cardinals multiple top prospects (say, to acquire a player like the Marlins’ Marcell Ozuna) might be necessary to really shake up the struggling offense, Goold opines. The Cards may have a tougher time finding a bat this summer than their rivals in Chicago may have in finding a starter, however, as Goold hears that pitching is expected to be more available than hitting at the deadline.
- Goold’s mailbag piece offers several items about the Cardinals’ minor league core players, trade speculation and this intriguing tidbit: “watch for where he [Randal Grichuk] is assigned next. That will tell us if the Cardinals are trying to find out” Grichuk’s trade value. St. Louis recently optioned Grichuk all the way down to the Class-A Advanced level to work with team offensive strategist George Greer in an effort to overhaul Grichuk’s approach at the plate. The Cards would certainly be selling low if they did decide to move Grichuk, given his struggles this season and his troubles in getting on base (a .289 OBP) last year. Still, Grichuk turns 26 in August and is a former first-rounder who put up an .877 OPS over 350 for the Cardinals in 2015, so he could be an intriguing trade chip.
- Speaking of the Cubs’ search for pitching, Eddie Butler and Mike Montgomery are trying to retain their jobs as the team’s fifth starter and potential spot starter, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Butler, a former top Rockies prospect, has a 3.75 ERA over 24 innings this season while Montgomery has a 2.21 ERA over 36 2/3 relief frames. Neither pitcher has terribly impressive peripheral stats, however, so it still seems likely that Chicago will try to acquire a higher-level arm and keep Butler, Montgomery and the injured Brett Anderson as rotation depth.
- While it would some major financial and roster wrangling to see Bryce Harper join the Cubs when he hits free agency in the 2018-19 offseason, Kris Bryant told CSNChicago.com’s Patrick Mooney and other reporters that he and Harper have had some casual conversations about being teammates. “I think we might have talked about it, just like messing around. Like it would be cool to play with you again,” Bryant said, referring to he and Harper playing together as youngsters in the Las Vegas area. “(It’s not) like Kevin Durant: ’I want to play there.’ But I would say if that were able to happen and work out like that, gosh, it would be exciting.” This sounds like the type of general banter that probably happens quite a bit between friends who play on different teams, though everything involving Harper’s heavily-anticipated foray into the free agent market is likely to draw attention between now and the end of the 2018 season (unless, of course, he signs an extension with the Nationals).
No thanks. Someone else can way overpay for Harper and enjoy the seasons like last year.
Harper in his prime with Bryant and Rizzo is an incredible impressive 3-4-5
The problem is that you wouldn’t be able to keep the 3 together with Harper’s contract. Rizzo is a FA in 2020 and Bryant in 2022. You couldn’t resign both and it would be doubtful that you could resign either with a massive Harper contract.
Montero, Lackey and Zobrist contracts all gone after 2020
Thats something in the neighborhood $40-45 million.
Lester gone after 2021. Another $25m
Cubs revenue are getting ready to be astronomical with TV deal and the Ricketts investments in Wrigleyvillle.
This is true. Cubs will soon be at Dodgers-level, or vintage old man Steinbrenner NYY-level spending power.
With that said, I think Theo and Ricketts are too conservative and smart to spend that much money.
These guys are still smart businessmen. Although the signing of Harper would be cool, from a fan perspective, I doubt it gets done.
They’ve already won a World Series with young talent and a minimal payroll. They pride themselves on doing it that way. That’s why they didn’t pay Chapman.
Are you kidding, me the cubs had the sixth highest opening day payroll last year. That’s not minimal payroll if you ask me
Cubs have several option years in Rizzo
Maybe Bryant can sign with whatever team signs Harper. Ha
Just won’t be the Cubs
2-3-4
2.Harper
3.Bryant
4.Rizzo
What do you mean enjoy seasons like last year? That was a down season by his standards and it was still well above average.
Agreed, Harper is a good player but anyone taking on that contract will be basically giving him money for a decent chunk of the later part of that contract for little value, it’s simply not a smart long term move. A GM has to keep in mind not only the next seasons, but the many seasons after
Completely agree.
I he come here at Heyward money he’s welcome in Chicago cause in 2020 we are resigning Bryant he is the next Mr Cub
Here’s hoping Harper stays in Washington. Surely he won’t pull an ARod move and sidle up to someone else’s (Jeter) team. Harper should stay in Washington and continue building his legacy.
Arod was traded and didn’t cause a fuss about having to play 3B, not sure where this was headed….
Arod was traded to the Yanks,so there was no sidling up!
Peter Gammons put that Harper Cubs junk out there the other day. Being the unreliable source as usual he quickly changed it the next day or two. Changing it to Harper indeed is interested in signing with the Yankees!
Kris Bryant’s also an unreliable source
All Kris Bryant said was that him and Harper had talked about what it’d be like to play together. He never said that Harper expressed a desire to play there.
Correct. So that means Bryant will follow Harper.
Peter Gammons is a joke
I’d prefer the Cards keep Grichuk
Seems so unusual McCutchen is only 30 but his stats have fallen off so much. Having said that I’d think he could still help a contender like the Orioles.
In what way? He’s not gonna make them better on offense. He’s not gonna make them better on defense. He’s not gonna make them better on the bases.
Just because a team is a playoff contender doesn’t mean a guy who appears to be washed up is going to make them better somehow. I’ve never understood this thinking.
st louis’ bullpen would be o.k. if the starters didn’t throw 100 pitches in 5 innings
Or like tonight, Lynn threw 78 pitches over 5ip. Then Brett Cecil did his thing. For the sake of competitive baseball, i hope Matheny loses his job soon.
To hear that players ” can’t control the business side” is a joke. They can control because they always get the final say, if you truly want to play for the team you started with you take the deal. These guys want to be the highest paid ball player but owners are already seeing how much space they’re taking in their payrolls. No one wants to give a player that takes more than an quarter or more of their payroll. You can spend that money else where.
I’m a Yankees fan but more baseball than anything. Harper looks more between the heyward and cano deal because of the history of his career. He has 2 good years of the 5 he been up. But outfielders don’t last past 30, their legs becomes weak. The yanks have a good farm system right now and should continue this “youth” movement going. I rather see machado on the yanks more than Harper, better defensive and better bat.
Two good years you say,how about of those two good years both were historic. You say Machado has a better bat then that is wrong..look at that again. Harper has been above average every year. Finally if you call yourself a Yankee fan and think they have anything close to him coming up then look again..come on man!
Harper is injury plagued to happen. You don’t need the guy at all. You also have Clint Frazier and Torres in the minors waiting to take spots in the field. Keep those young guys and save money on the payroll. If George Steinbrenner was still around you know the Yankees will spend money on everyone in free agency.
You don’t let Clint Frazier block Bryce Harper. I don’t think Harper goes to the Yankees, though. I think he might stay in Washington, honestly.
Harper has had five good years out of the 5 he has been up. And he came up at 19.
Outfielders don’t last past 30? That’s a new one.
He must be thinking about running backs and the wrong sport.
With the new CBA, I’m not sure the $400 million contracts that everyone assumes are coming are actually going to happen. The penalties for exceeding the luxury tax threshold are now really punative and it’s likely to act as a de facto salary cap.
Though, if a few teams do decide to exceed the threshold, they will likely go well above it in order to maximize the return on such an investment and such deals could happen. But the result could well be an NBA style version of MLB with a handful of super teams. Again.
It takes some bidding to drive a contract up that high, and there just aren’t that many teams that would even entertain the idea. It’s always the usual big market suspects in the bidding, and then an extra team or two taking a chance like Cano->SEA or Greinke->ARI. I think Harper will get a record contract but I don’t think it’s going to blow past precedent as much as people seem to think.
Most teams would be preparing for a new normal without Harper if he was on their team right now.
cards need to do something to that offense cause their pitching is to good to waste with that lineup they have
I hope Cutch stays in Pittsburgh, If I had it my way I’d try to get him locked into another 2 years after his buy out on the cheap (like average player salary) with lots of performance incentives.
Why? Cutch has shown signs of coming back, Kang’s MLB future could be over, Polanco hasn’t lived up to the hype (yet), Marte coming off of a PED suspension and Meadows hasn’t figured out AAA pitching yet and is still a question mark.
Also there is the fact that Cutch is pretty popular and liked outside of baseball.