It’s not often that an MVP is available in a trade, but that apparently was the case with Andrew McCutchen.
FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports that the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates were discussing a trade of McCutchen last season. The teams ended up working out a deal that sent reliever Mark Melancon to Washington, but McCutchen stayed put.
Rosenthal says there were too many moving parts involved in a potential trade.
McCutchen was the 2013 NL MVP and made five straight All-Star Games, but his stats dropped off significantly last season. He batted just .256 and had a .766 OPS. By comparison, he batted at least .314 in each year from 2012-2014. There were also questions about his defensive value dropping.
McCutchen is under contract for an extremely reasonable amount the next two seasons. He’s set to earn $17 million next season, and there is a club option at $14.75 million for him in 2018.
