The pain still lingers for Andrew McCutchen, even as he wraps up a comeback season that few expected.
At 37 years old, the designated hitter is pleased with the achievements he’s reached, such as hitting 20 home runs in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform for the eighth time during Tuesday night’s 6-4 win over Miami. However, he still thinks about what could have been.
McCutchen never wanted to leave Pittsburgh. In January 2018, he was traded to San Francisco due to baseball’s financial pressures, beginning a five-year journey where he moved from the Giants to the New York Yankees, then to Philadelphia, and finally to Milwaukee.
While he enjoyed these new places and had good teammates and experiences, none of them compared to Pittsburgh, his adopted home.
Even though McCutchen is now joining the ranks of greats in a team that has been around since 1887 — with only Hall of Famer Willie Stargell having more 20-home run seasons with the Pirates — he still thinks about how much higher he might be on the club’s all-time lists if he had spent his entire career there instead of being a journeyman.
“It’s nice to be able to be with those guys and those greats, it’s amazing,” McCutchen said. “But it would be cool if I was here my whole career and then see where I would be at.”
That didn’t happen, and although he has embraced his surprising return in early 2023, a part of him feels frustrated about having to leave in the first place.
“Every time I hear (where I rank), I’m like ‘Dang man, if only,’” McCutchen said. “I just go ‘cool’ and then I just move on.”
He acknowledges that his legs, which once earned him five All-Star appearances, the 2013 NL MVP, and a Gold Glove, don’t move as well as they used to.
A partially torn left Achilles last September forced him to wear a protective boot during part of the offseason. Spring training was tough, and he felt like he was behind, aware of the doubts about his performance.
That made the 403-foot home run to the left-field seats off Miami’s Adam Oller with two runners on in the fifth inning — McCutchen’s 319th home run in his 16-year career — even more satisfying.
“Would a lot of people think I’d have (reached 20 homers)? Probably not,” he said. “It’s why I don’t look at them … because I know I can do it.”
McCutchen has transitioned from a flashy player with dreadlocks to a seasoned veteran. The age difference between him and 22-year-old Pirates rookie ace Paul Skenes is just one year less than the difference between Skenes and McCutchen’s 6-year-old son, Steel.
With all these years comes experience. When asked if he thinks he’s a better hitter now than when he led the Pirates to three consecutive playoff appearances from 2013-15, he chuckles and mentions he’s become a bit of a cliché about the “if I knew then what I know now” idea.
Then, becoming more serious, he spoke like a player who feels there’s still much more to achieve before retiring.
“I’ve definitely gotten better over the past five, six, seven, eight – I don’t know how many years it’s been – but I’ve gotten better,” he said. “And I’ve gotten myself back to where I feel like I can be.”
Even though his batting average (.241) isn’t as high as it was ten years ago — due to the wear and tear from playing 2,116 games — his eye for the game remains sharp.
What impressed Pirates manager Derek Shelton, besides McCutchen’s power surge — with 20 home runs this season being the most he’s hit since 2021 — was the full-count curveball McCutchen chose to let go by for ball four in his next at-bat.
“Nobody takes that pitch,” Shelton said.
