The Philadelphia Phillies will spend a large amount of their remaining winter season observing what other teams do, as they don’t have much to do this offseason save preventing their star player, Aaron Nola, from joining another team.
It’s improbable that Nola will play for a team other than the Phillies after agreeing to a seven-year contract with the team that drafted him.
This offseason, the Pittsburgh Pirates, their in-state rivals, were also fortunate to have their own happy ending.
Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY reports that Andrew McCutchen has agreed to a $5 million, one-year contract with the Pirates and will retire with the team.
In the 2005 MLB Draft, he was first selected with the 11th overall choice and went on to become one of the greatest players in the team’s history.
From 2011 to 2015, McCutchen was chosen for five consecutive All-Star games. In 2012, he led the league in hits (194) and was named National League MVP. From 2012 to 2015, he also placed among the top five vote-getters.
Prior to the 2018 season, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants, ending his nine-year first stint with Pittsburgh. At that year’s trade deadline, he was traded to the New York Yankees.
Before the 2019 season, Philadelphia signed the former MVP to a $50 million, three-year contract. Sadly, after getting off to a great start, he tore his ACL in the summer and missed the remainder of the season.
At the conclusion of his three-year stay with the Phillies, McCutchen had 47 home runs and 143 RBI with a slash line of.237/.343/.444.
In 2023, the slugger made his way back to the Pirates and spent the summer hitting 2,000 runs in his career with the team that had drafted him.
Before retiring, he stated that he planned to play two more seasons and try to become one of the franchise’s all-time greats.
With his fourth-most home runs (215), seventh-most doubles (311), ninth-most total bases (2,607), ninth-most RBI (768), and tenth-place bWAR, McCutchen is quite impressive. For their players in position (41.9).
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