Cherington navigates a delicate dance, leaving the door ajar for McCutchen's return while prioritizing the present roster for the 2026 season.
Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has been in baseball long enough to know that it is never wise to use the word never.
Thus, Cherington is not ruling out the possibility of Andrew McCutchen playing for the Pirates again someday. However, it’s not going to be at the start of spring training, and it doesn’t figure to be in 2026. In fact, it seems certain that McCutchen has played the last of his 1,721 games with Pittsburgh.
The longer the offseason lasted, the clearer it became that the 39-year-old McCutchen did not fit into the Pirates’ plans for 2026. That point was driven home on Monday when Pittsburgh agreed to a one-year, $12-million contract with free agent designated hitter Marcell Ozuna. No team is going to carry two full-time DHs, though McCutchen believes the Pirates are wrong in their evaluation that he can no longer play the outfield.
Cherington addressed McCutchen’s situation on Tuesday in a video conference with reporters on the eve of pitchers and catchers going through their first spring training workout in Bradenton, Fla.
“I think this is a moment in time. I think there is a long time ahead of us, forever is a long time,” Cherington said. “The Pirates will never shut the door, completely shut the door on Andrew McCutchen. That’s how we feel about him; that’s not going to happen. There is a moment in time that we are in right now in Bradenton today, focused on the players who are here. Focused on how do we get ready for the 2026 season?
“Given the complexion of the roster, what we expect it to be here as we get into full camp, when position players arrive. I think our focus will be on the players who are here. We don’t need to make any declaration on the longer term, just focused on today right now.”
Yet it seems highly unlikely that McCutchen will play for Pittsburgh again. The Pirates have decided to move even though McCutchen wants to continue playing. It will be interesting to see if McCutchen has a market after hitting .239/.333/.367 with 13 home runs in 135 games last season. He also had just 0.1 bWAR, meaning he was just a tick above being a replacement-level player.
The situation between the Pirates and McCutchen was awkward throughout the winter. Cherington kept giving vague answers about whether the five-time All-Star would be back in 2026. McCutchen made social media posts expressing his frustration with Pittsburgh no longer believing he could play in the field and with not being invited to PiratesFest last month.
However, Cherington says there are no hard feelings on his part, and he would like for McCutchen to stay in the organization in some capacity.
“As far as I'm concerned, Andrew will always be a Pirate,” Cherington said. “I think most people feel that way. I certainly speak for the organization, and that's how we feel: that no matter what, Andrew is a Pirate, and certainly our desire will be to continue to have a really strong relationship with him into the future, whatever that looks like.
“At the beginning of the offseason, when we spoke, what I shared was that we felt like we needed to go into the offseason with a singular mindset, and that was what puts this team in the best position to win more games in 2026, really focus on that. Be singularly focused on the team, and as we did that work, we would do the best we could to continue to share information with him about what that looked like. We did the best we could to do that.”
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