
Don't tell Andrew McCutchen that he's too old to play a young man's game. McCutchen, who signed a minor-league deal with the Texas Rangers, decided to show those young whippersnappers a thing or two on Wednesday night.
The Rangers were beating the pants off of the Kansas City Royals when McCutchen stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning.
McCutchen took a four-seam fastball and smacked it right over the right-center field wall for a three-run homer. Danyer Cueva and Kyle Higashioka scored ahead of McCutchen.
Rangers Roundtable reporter Kane McCutchen will have full coverage of Wednesday night's Cactus League game against the Royals on Thursday morning.
But let's just focus on McCutchen a bit.
Here's a guy who has played 17 MLB seasons, most of those (12 to be exact) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. For some of the teams he played on in Pittsburgh, he was a big reason that fans even came out to watch that lowly franchise play.
McCutchen has 332 career major-league home runs to his name. He has other accolades, too, that he's collected through a long career in the majors.
Now, with the Rangers signing him, he's getting another chance to show what he can do. One can only imagine Rangers manager Skip Schumaker smiling once McCutchen got back to the Rangers' dugout on Wednesday night.
The Rangers' telecast of Wednesday night's game showed some of McCutchen's teammates coming up and giving him some attention after his big blast.
McCutchen was the Rangers' designated hitter against the Royals.
Between 2018 and 2022, McCutchen played for the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Brewers. Then, he returned to the Pirates' franchise and played there between 2022-25.
McCutchen was a first-round draft pick (No. 11 overall) by the Pirates in the 2005 MLB Amateur Draft. He's a native of Fort Meade, Fla.
So, how is McCutchen doing statistics-wise for Texas? With his home run on Wednesday night, his first in Spring Training, McCutchen is now 8-for-15 at the plate with seven RBIs and five runs scored. How about his batting average? Oh, it's not too shabby. McCutchen has a .533 average and an OPS of 1.600.
He's showing off these days for the Rangers. And it might just be enough to potentially get him a spot on the Opening Day roster.
But that's still to be determined.
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