The Rangers have placed Andrew McCutchen on release waivers, according to the MLB.com transaction log. That was the expectation after he was designated for assignment yesterday to make room for the signing of infielder Nicky Lopez.
Assuming McCutchen goes unclaimed on waivers, he’ll become a free agent. The former MVP can explore all opportunities at that point. The Rangers will remain on the hook for the guarantees in his contract, reportedly a $1.25MM salary. A signing team would pay him the prorated $780K league minimum for any time he spends on the MLB roster, which would be subtracted from the Rangers’ obligations.
McCutchen signed a minor league deal midway through Spring Training. He’d seemingly hoped to return to the Pirates for what would’ve been the fourth season of his late-career second act in the Steel City. The Bucs didn’t appear to reciprocate that interest, and the writing was officially on the wall when Pittsburgh signed Marcell Ozuna to a $12MM free agent deal.
Texas used McCutchen mostly in a short side platoon capacity, splitting his time between DH and the corner outfield. He didn’t hit much, batting .192 with one home run over 83 trips to the plate. McCutchen drew nine walks but fanned 22 times, a 26.5% rate that would be the highest of his career over a full season.
It’s the fourth straight year in which McCutchen’s numbers have declined. The five-time All-Star had been close to a league average bat over 551 plate appearances with the Bucs last season. McCutchen still has an elite understanding of the strike zone but no longer hits for much power.
Although he struggled against pitchers of either handedness in his limited sample with Texas, he hit lefties at a solid .267/.353/.389 clip a year ago. The Rangers themselves have been one of the worst offenses in MLB against left-handed pitching. They evidently weren’t expecting McCutchen to improve that production. The Mariners and Padres are also near the bottom of the league in hitting lefties and are speculative possibilities that could consider him for a bench role.
Best of luck Cutch! But father time is undefeated, and it may be time to explore new opportunities in baseball.
The Padres should sign him, as our next hitting coach.
Go get him Phillies! Bring him back to PA!!!!!
He can dh once a month.
Absolutely not
Loyal fans of that recently struggling but historic franchise want to see him end his career on the same team he became a legend on.
Hoping to see him wear the orange and black for the Giants one more time to give him that storybook ending to a long career.
😉😜
Hell get a 1 day contract when hes done.
Go into the hall wearing Yankees pinstripes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make him shave.
Are you a writer on Kimmel? 300 HR’s isn’t getting into him into the HOF?
Hall of what?
Kids in the Hall
How is his defense recently? If it’s still above average, the Dodgers might want to see if they can tweak his bat and add a solid veteran. With Teoscar down, it might be worth checking into
Pretty sure he’s been considered a very poor defender for several years now. He’s been primarily a DH since the year he spent in Milwaukee. As much as I think we’d all like to see him get a better curtain call than this, I think that ship sailed a while ago.
Appreciate the info. Better to ask than assume.
Teams don’t play him out there. Don’t believe he can hold up physically. He is slow and has no arm. But can field the balls he can get to.
Forget about tweaking his bat. How bout turning back the clock? Dude is pushing 40….
The Dodgers farm system is stacked with outfielders. There’s absolutely no reason to bring in a washed up 40 year old.
He is almost 40 years old.
And washed
He wouldn’t crack the Dodgers AAA roster TBH
Hell no Dodgers are not going to sign him! We have young outfielders that can take over will Teoscar is hurt!
Seems pretty likely that this is the end of the line – if so, hats of to one hell of a career Cutch! Truly one of the great players of his era. Unfortunately everyone’s time comes some day.
If his era was 3 or 4 years then he was a great player
Oh, do 48-WAR players grow on trees? He was essentially the Torii Hunter of the 2010s and only 7 players were more valuable than him for the entire decade. 98th percentile player in the history of the game. If you’re trolling, you need a better shtick.
31.4 came from 5 years. 3 special years. 2 great ones. That’s his era. Age 26 was his last 20 plus stolen base season. Only 1 30 hrs season 31. After he left pirates all 700 something ops seasons except 1. Guy was mvp worthy even won 1 for a short period. One of the best of his era. Short era.
40.9 comes from 8 years
43.2 if you take 9 years. What’s that leave for the other 9 years aka half of his career?
4 years over 5 war. Will even give you his 4.9 war season and call it 5 years. That’s it though. Rest all under 4. All but 2 under 3. Mostly 1 and 0 something war years. 5 great years max for me. But maybe you have a different criteria for greatness.
Wish “cutch” could have retired in a Pirates uniform as a Bluejays fan I always liked him as a player along with Ichiro, Trout and Ohtani when he played for the Angels
He still can! Hasn’t retired yet!
I’m a Bucs fan and that’s a hard pass on signing Cutch
I would absolutely sign him. Get the pr marketing. Have him retire a pirate. Can sell a few tickets in Indianapolis. Get him to chat with Block and Young for a couple innings.
A Class Act Maybe he can help some team. If not great career
Cutch is better than Triolo. He’s also better than Mangum. Just sayin
Is he though? Those two are solid defenders and have hit more, both are versatile as well. I think they are both way better that Cutch at this point
Cutch isn’t even close. Can’t play any postion let alone multiple. Can’t run.
No, he isn’t as good as either at this point. Time to retire.
Sign a 1 day contract and retire with the Pirates if this really is the end.
IMO this year is the end. But he has one last run this year as a specialist against lefties for a contender. Maybe I’m wishcasting because like me most fans, I love Cutch.
Except he isn’t a left specialist. They have a 900 something ops. At least 800. Cutch was 700 at best in recent years. We aren’t talking recent years we are talking this year.
Hes hitting exactly .200 against LHP’s. This makes 2 of the last 3 yrs hes hit exactly .200 against LHP. Other than the odds of that happening((Khris Davis excluded)) I dont see him specializing in anything at this point.
Technically the Pirates could use him a little while O’Hearn is out.
Technically.
To hoist the cone maybe
Soon to be appearing in an updated “Buddie” cop show = Starsky & McCutch !!
Or just Starsky and Cutch
I still remember his MVP season and the nice run he and the Pirates had up until 2018. Definitely one of the best players to come out of the Pirates organization. A very good Hall of Very good career.
Up until 2015 2016. 2015 was their last winning record other than a hair above in 2018 but Cutch wasn’t on that team. That year was Archer trade and post deadline collapse so wouldn’t call it much of a run. But point taken. Mostly good years with Cutch as Pirate.
He’s cooked. But c’mon Pirates, throw him a bone, stick him on IL or something for a few weeks and let him pinch hit/run in the last home stand. Surely there will be some meaningless time he can contribute? If they are fighting for a WC spot, then assign him as mentor/bench guru and he can play that Jason Heyward Cubs 2016 cheerleader role.
He’s been a great servant of the game and deserves a fitting send off.
They kept him around for 3 years for a swan song!!!
Not worth a 40 man spot. If he was going to mentor anyone he should have done it for previous 3 years.
Fans need to realize he got 3 years to say goodbye. It’s on him if he couldn’t figure out his career was over a few years ago and they were already letting him complete his farewell tour.
The Pirates were/are still under fire from a large majority of other teams for making zero effort to compete in the modern games landscape.
If they bought Cutch back this year it would’ve been yet another sign the Pirates weren’t taking being competitive serious and were just throwing gimmicks out there to appease the fans.
Pirate fans….would you rather compete going forward or live in nostalgia?
They been trying to compete since 2007 at least.
[citation needed]
at least it’s satisfying seeing Ozuna put up an identical 62 OPS+ for 10X the salary.
Maybe he could be a coach with the Bucs or something if he wants to stay in the bigs in some capacity? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Cutch” was one of my all-time favorite players. Loved him during his brief time with my Phillies. Despite all his heroics on the diamond, the one vision of McCutchen that stands out in my mind is that MLB promo showing him handing his batting gloves to a young boy in the stands. The smile of that little boy’s face would have stretched from LA to NYC. He was that happy.
And speaking of my Phillies, they need a RH bat since the combined efforts of all the RH hitters they’ve used so far have a negative WAR! Negative WAR? That’s hard to do.
Thus, I ask, can McCutchen find a home at CBP in South Philly? I know he’d have trouble playing LF on days we face a LH starting pitcher, but he can’t be any worse out there defensively than when Donnie Baseball plays Schwarber or one of two infielders-by-trade (Sosa or Kemp) in LF.
Bring back “Cutch”! Gonna get some t-shirts printed.
This looks like it may finally be the end of the line for Andrew. Hopefully he can catch on with a playoff contender and help them in some way the rest of this season. Good luck to the former Nats killer , with three home runs in a 2009 game and two in a 2013 game at which I was present in Nats Park!
Farewell Cutch! He was pretty much cooked last year but the inept Pirates front office didn’t have the guts to tell him, and left him hanging this year. No place for him on the current team, though Ozuna has been only marginally better. There’s still a chance Ozuna has a hot streak, and he’s Oneil Cruz’s designated daddy this year, so he’s not going anywhere.
Took the jersey right off his back as he once said.
Went from being beloved in Pittsburgh to hated so fast after the public temperature tantrum he threw over not being signed by the Pirates this season.
Bye Cutch. Should’ve just let last year be the final year and join the coaching staff.
Just retire!
Watch him sign with the Rays.