Andrew McCutchen’s extension

Andrew McCutchen, talking to the Post-Gazette about an extension with the Pirates: 

“We definitely want to work something out but that’s nothing that I can control right now,” he said. “All I can do is get ready for the season and get things right. I’ll let everything else take care of itself.”

Of course, it’s not really true that he can’t control signing an extension with the Pirates, unless he means that he doesn’t worry about these things at all and his agent does it all for him. I read it differently, though, as him saying that the Pirates have asked him to do something he has no interest in doing — sign a contract that locks him down for one or two of his first free agency years — and neither side is has any intention on budging at the moment, so there’s nothing no one can do. 

McCutchen’s free agency is still a ways away, of course, and so there’s plenty of time for the Pirates to take advantage of McCutchen’s talents before even worrying about him leaving. Who knows maybe an 85-win season in 2012 makes ‘Cutch more amenable to a deal that keeps him in Pittsburgh in 2016 or 2017. It’s always worth remembering, though, that nothing in the world can make a player play for a team longer than he absolutely has to, and that a contract negotiation always has two sides.