The Pittsburgh Pirates are giving more hints that Andrew McCutchen’s time with the franchise could be coming to a close.
Manager Clint Hurdle admitted Wednesday that the club had to do their due diligence on listening to potential offers for players who have a year or two left on their contracts, as McCutchen does.
“I’ll take it one day at a time,” Hurdle said of McCutchen’s future, via Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I think any general manager that’s in a market similar to the one we’re in has to explore the possibility of [trading] players who have one or two years left on their contracts. You have to see what value is there to keep or to move.
“That’s the way we’re going to need to continue to operate. It’s the hard part of what we get to do.”
McCutchen is owed $14 million in 2017 and has a $14.75 million club option for 2018.
The Pirates are not an organization who can spend a limitless amount on players and get away with it. Plus, McCutchen is coming off his worst career season offensively with a .766 OPS. He’s also missed time with injuries over the past three years. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the Pirates are talking trades, though one has to wonder if they’d selling low on the former MVP.
