The Pirates and centerfielder Andrew McCutchen agreed on a six year/$51.5 million contract and officially announced the signing today in their spring training home in Bradenton, Florida.
There was a lot of angst among Pirates fans in recents weeks and months after it appeared that the Pirates and McCutchen were too far apart to get a deal done.
Speaking of angst, some Pirates fans are still a bit skeptical of the deal and are comparing it to the Nate Mclouth signing and then subsequent trade to the Atlanta Braves in 2009.
There are people out there who completely distrust the Pirates front office, and they are just waiting for the team to now trade the newly-minted McCutchen for a bag of balls and some prospects.
If they were going to do that, wouldn't they have done it already, before going through the trouble of negotiating?
In my opinion, it's not even close to being anything like the Mclouth deal. Mclouth had his career year in 2008, when he made the All-star team, and give Pirates general manager Neal Huntington credit for recognizing that. Was it his master plan to sign Mclouth and then deal him away? I don't know, but when an offer was presented to him for three above average prospects, he had no choice but to act on it.
When the new front office took over in 2008, the Pirates had NOTHING in their farm system. In fact, an anonymous baseball executive was quoted as saying that the Pirates had, maybe, a half a dozen players in their entire system who could possibly play in the majors someday.
One of those players was obviously McCutchen, and that probably made it a little easier for Huntington to unload Mclouth.
And, for all of the skeptics out there, the Pirates got the better end of that deal. Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke and Gorkys Hernandez all still figure in the Pirates future in some capacity, and Mclouth barely did anything with the Braves. Heck, for all of you fans who are still bitter about losing Nate the Great, he re-signed with the Pirates this past winter. If you ask me, it's the best of both worlds.
No, I think a better comparison for the McCutchen signing would be the signings of Brian Giles and Jason Kendall back in 2000. Both players were considered cornerstones to the future of the team, and ownership wanted to show the fans that they were serious about having a successful future.
It didn't work out, but McCutchen seems to be a much more talented player than Giles and Kendall were, and the Pirates appear to be in a little better shape both financially and in terms of their minor league system than they were back in the late 90's.
Besides, I think McCutchen has only scratched the surface of the type of player he can become.
By the middle of this contract, McCutchen is going to seem like a bargain.
I think it's a good day for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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