The Pittsburgh Pirates are now charting a post-Andrew McCutchen course. Now that the initial shock of seeing a franchise icon change jerseys is subsiding, is it possible that the club is now free of undue pressure?
Pittsburgh Pirates fans are still unhappy.
The modern-day face of their franchise is 3,000 miles away — and that’s not hyperbole — and their favorite teams faces a murky future.
But, if you subscribe to a certain way of thinking, losing McCutchen may have unintended positive consequences.
No, this does not mean that losing a player of McCutchen’s ability is suddenly a good thing. Even with diminished returns from his early-2010 highs, McCutchen is still a productive player capable of posting a 2.5-4 fWAR season.
Rather, I’m talking about how the club may now be freed of the pressures not to “waste the McCutchen era.”
Less pressure?
The problem with the point I’m trying to make here is that none of it is quantifiable.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were once at the forefront of analytics in baseball but the singular aspect of McCutchen’s departure that might just propel the team to success is of a personal nature. It’s a certain mystique. It is felt. And therefore there will never be a dataset large enough to draw a conclusion based on fact alone.
With the entire organization — front office down to those that take the field — free of the “pressure” of putting together a deep playoff run while having McCutchen patrol “his spot” in his prime, can they conceivably reach new heights?
Pressure is a tricky word, and it is highly plausible that every professional athlete already deals with their fare share of it. So to put forth the notion that some large weight has been lifted off of their shoulder is not productive.
But one need look no further than the curious optimism shown by manager Clint Hurdle.:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”Adam Berry, MLB.com reporting” link=”https://www.mlb.com/pirates/news/clint-hurdle-optimistic-about-pirates-future/c-266462026″ color=”” class=”” size=””]We believe we can win games. We’re here to win games,” Hurdle said. “We’re also here to grow together. It’s an opportunity for a new era of Pirates baseball, as I’ve said. When Andrew walks out, it’s a new era. … We’ve never told them it’s going to be easy, but it’s going to be so worth it in the end when we do win.[/perfectpullquote]Clint took a lot of heat for those comments from fans and observers alike. While it’s true that the Pittsburgh Pirates did not necessarily load up on talent for 2018 in McCutchen’s stead, the club still has plenty of young talent that now may be able to grow and develop without necessarily feeling the burden of winning while McCutchen is in town.
A ticking clock from the start
From the moment the Pittsburgh Pirates gave McCutchen a contract extension right before the 2012 season, the club was on the clock.
Lip service about a possible extension aside, everyone knew that McCutchen would not remain in Pittsburgh beyond 2018. That fact alone created an atmosphere of something not quite like impending doom, but more akin to something such as a nagging toothache.
Everyone — fans, players, executives, media — knew it was there, but it could be dealt with when the time come. 2013 through 2015 came along, and it was as if the pain went away for awhile, only to come roaring back after a dismal 2016 followed by serious trade rumors during that offseason.
The front office was undoubtedly affected by this ticking clock as well. The Pittsburgh Pirates organization can sometimes best be described as “risk adverse,” and suddenly they were faced with the very definition of a “window” in sports. Windows by their nature are laden with risk. If we follow the thread, the organization was in a catch-22 situation. They did very well by locking up an intriguing player throughout the entirety of his prime, but their tendencies to avoid risk lessened the potential return on that investment.
So will the team take more risks post-McCutchen?
Well…yes and no.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will remain wary of risk. This will manifest itself in the usual ways. The club will continue to be loathe to give up top prospects in any trades, and will continue to be selective on the free agent market.
However, you may see the club be a bit more courageous in regards to how they approach their internal parts. I firmly believe that the club will be more flexible with their internal prospect options, and we saw that when the club engaged in trade talks centered around New York Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier. The natural reaction from many when those rumors surfaced was something akin to “What about Austin Meadows?” It was surprising to see the club not be so beholden to a prized prospect that has been destined to play 81 games in PNC Park from the moment he was drafted. Neal Huntington and his team were looking outside of the organization for major-league ready talent.
It was the tiniest of indicators, yet it could be a harbinger of small but significant changes in the club’s thinking. This won’t mean a dramatic increase to payroll, or even a modest one. But what it could mean is that the organization is starting to realize it needs to be a bit more pliable when it comes to how they view their pipeline.
Whether or not the Pittsburgh Pirates will be successful during the post-McCutchen era near-term remains to be seen.
But the club can now proceed to rebuild the organization without the weight of a franchise icon’s prime slipping away on their shoulders.
Photo credit – Flickr Creative Commons
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