COLUMN: How Do You Solve a Problem Like McCutchen?

Andrew McCutchen is currently trudging through the worst season of his career. How can his problem season be solved?

It started with the Chicken Littles of the Pirates online community.

Then it spread to the armchair GMs and Managers.

Now, it’s a fire burning so hot with practically every Pirates fan with a Twitter handle or membership in a Facebook group – what are we gonna do with Andrew McCutchen?

He’s crap – they say.
He’s done, trade him – they plead.
He should never play in centerfield again, ever – they shout.

This has not been Andrew McCutchen’s year. A quick look at his offensive numbers, which I’m quite sure people have memorized at this point, tells the dismal tale.

 

 

For the first time in his professional career, Cutch is currently in negative territory in WAR at -0.5. He’s not hitting like he has, he’s not running the bases like he has, he’s not snagging balls in the outfield like he has, he’s not hitting dingers like he has. In short, he’s not been very Cutch-like at all in 2016.

So, how do you solve a problem like Andrew McCutchen?

You don’t.

Bad Seasons Are Eventualities

Players have bad years. This is McCutchen’s worst by far – but statistically-speaking, it was bound to happen.

Last year we saw a chink in his armor, but he was buggered by a knee injury, and still managed to put up respectable numbers. This season, there’s more mystery as to the cause of his issues – which is a positive, but extremely frustrating thing. Especially for McCutchen and the Pirates organization.

There’s no magic bullet. No amount of rehab can mend something that is just ‘off.” All the new cherry Marucci bats in the world can’t fix something that isn’t broken. At this point, even the mighty Jobu is scratching his head and muttering “WTF” under his voice.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Jobu” link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]WTF?[/perfectpullquote]

That’s why the best approach is no approach at all.

Switching McCutchen with, say Starling Marte in the outfield, which has oft been suggested, isn’t going to make Andrew McCutchen better.

It might make the “Dream Outfield” worse.

Marte’s rocket arm may be needed more in that corner where it’s proven far more effective, and necessary, than McCutchen’s has in center. And a change in position doesn’t help wake up a sleeping bat. People will argue all night long that McCutchen is not a centerfielder and shouldn’t be playing that position.

That’s not what I’m looking at here – I’m looking at how to “fix” McCutchen, not necessarily the team. Which, as a whole needs a lot of improvement.

The Bench is Not The Answer

Though he sat last night, and more respites are lingering in his future, benching him isn’t going to work.

He’s the type of player who puts enough pressure on himself that external threats, like those that come from management, do more to de-motivate than inspire. Look back to last year’s “0-for-freaking-4” remarks, and the following hype, for all the proof you need of that. Benching a team’s top player also has a ripple effect in the clubhouse and stadium that does, in my opinion, a lot more harm than good. It sends the message that the management is not confident in that player and that it won’t stand behind a player, who has given far more to them than they have to him, who is in a rough patch.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”Andrew McCutchen, May 5 2015″ link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]Right now I’m not doing what I should be doing for the money I’m making. … It’s under mediocre right now. It’s bad.[/perfectpullquote]

What about trading Andrew McCutchen? The Pirates would not have gotten nearly the return on their investment, especially while he’s in a slump. Then there’s the loss of the face of their franchise. I agree that no team should be about one player, and no player should become bigger than the team, but even in his worst season in professional baseball, Andrew McCutchen’s star still outshines anyone else’s in the clubhouse – and a large percentage of players throughout the MLB.

Why else do you think everyone is freaking out about his performance?

To trade him away – especially in the manner the Pirates have been trading players of late, would be to relegate the team to the obscurity they “enjoyed” in the early 2000’s. And then there’s always the threat of the Jose Bautista (and some might argue Neil Walker) effect – where a non-producing player is sent down the river to wither out their careers only to bounce back so high that people snicker and say things like, “Hey, remember when he was a Pirate?” The anger Yinzers have about the Liriano and Melancon trades would be but a lit match in comparison to the smoldering remains that would be PNC Park if that were ever to happen.

Finally, let us not forget this nugget – whether people want to believe it or not, Andrew McCutchen has helped this team in 2016. In fact, team-wide, he is tied at first with Gregory Polanco for home runs and runs at 15 and 57 respectively as of this writing. He is second on the club with RBIs at 43.

He is not the only “problem” on this team.

His issues are actually a window into the overall performance of the Pirates this season. Lackluster at-bats, less-than-stellar fielding, less-than-aggressive base-running – it’s not a “Cutch problem.”

It is a Pirates problem. Andrew McCutchen, just like he has enjoyed representing the team during the good times, is now forced to bear the burden of these difficult times as well.

Whether the internet likes to think so or not, the people who run the Pittsburgh Pirates know about baseball. They know about player management. They have made mistakes and I believe have learned a great deal from them. For proof, just look at how much time and effort they put into Pedro Alvarez before finally waving the white flag. As much as some naysayers would like to argue this fact, Cutch ain’t there yet.

[irp posts=”8399″ name=”Breaking down the Pittsburgh Pirates odd trade of Liriano”]

Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography