Andrew McCutchen is officially back with the Pirates. He's not here for a farewell tour or to just give some good vibes into the organization. He wants to help the club win.
Great. So how does he get into the lineup?
McCutchen served primarily as a designated hitter for the Brewers last season, and he'll get more reps there with the Pirates in 2023. But the Pirates aren't really in a position where he can be just a DH this season. Two of their big additions this winter were Carlos Santana and Ji-Man Choi, two first basemen who should split time there and at DH. Choi has been used primarily as a platoon, so McCutchen can probably be written into the lineup as the DH against southpaws.
But he wasn't brought back to just be a platoon designated hitter. He needs to get at-bats against right-handers, and that means he's going to have to play the field.
No, he's not a center fielder anymore, but can he at least be effective at a corner?
"Based on our stuff, he was a positive defender in left field last year in Milwaukee," Ben Cherington said. "The sprint speed is still there. I think we’ll try to be mindful of managing the volume, with him and everyone else, too. We had a chance to talk about it. Andrew and I talked about it. ... We feel very comfortable and confident of putting him out there in the outfield."
McCutchen's defensive metrics were positive last year, albeit in a very limited sample size. His 5 defensive runs saved was actually tied with the best of his career, but it was over just 434 1/3 innings in the field. The only year where he played fewer defensive innings was the shortened 2020 season, so this could be small sample size at work, especially when considering his recent defensive output.
Last year, McCutchen had 0 Outs Above Average (OAA), which is the current best defensive metric offered by Baseball Savant. In 2021, he had -7 OAA and -7 DRS over 1099 innings in the outfield. In 302 innings in 2020, he had -4 OAA and -7 DRS. In fairness, that season was his return back from a torn ACL. But in 2018, a year where he primarily played right field, he still had -9 OAA and -2 DRS.
So was last year's defensive performance an anomaly? Perhaps, and let's not pretend that McCutchen was brought back for his defense. He's here to hit and be a clubhouse leader. I wrote more about those aspects earlier. But with a young rotation and a defense that already ranked 26th in OAA last year (-22), they can't field a liability.
McCutchen profiles best as a left fielder, and his arm is a big reason why. It was arguably always his worst tool, but now it's noticeable. Going by Baseball Savant's arm strength data, 156 outfielders made at least 100 competitive throws last year. McCutchen ranked 144th at 83.2 mph. His hardest throw was just 87 mph, which was the sixth-lowest of any outfielder:
PNC Park's right field is considerably smaller than left field, but putting the weakest outfield arm on the team in right field consistently is going to lead to extra bases.
That extra ground in left is actually not a dealbreaker for McCutchen. He can still book it, which is extremely rare for someone who is 36 and had a significant ACL injury in his 30s. And by book it, I mean ranking in the top 10% of the league in sprint speed:
It is pretty cool, I think, that Andrew McCutchen was able to get back to something like elite speed (these are percentiles, 0-100) after that bad knee injury he had in 2019. You can see the effects of it in 2020, but here he is now, back at the top. It's great. pic.twitter.com/g7EyBBxFjn
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) December 2, 2022
So he can still run, and he still runs good routes. Baseball Savant tracks an outfielder's "jump," or how much ground an outfielder covers in the first three seconds of a competitive fly ball. McCutchen graded poorly in terms of reaction, but when he got going, it was a fairly direct path to the ball.
Now imagine that at PNC Park. McCutchen has a good catch radius and will take a good path to the ball. That's a recipe for some catches. His recent track record may not have been great, but that can partially be attributed to playing right field in 2018 or being overworked while still recovering from his ACL injury in 2020 and 2021.
Having him play semi-consistently in the field will probably call for some changes in his approach. McCutchen has traditionally played shallower, while Pirate left fielders usually play deeper because of the large dimensions of PNC Park. That's going to create new looks and angles regardless of if he moves or not.
Not to mention there are other outfielders on the roster who could use reps. Assuming Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski are two starting outfielders and McCutchen gets a good chunk of reps, where does that leave players like Ji Hwan Bae, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Ryan Vilade and Travis Swaggerty? McCutchen obviously adds a lot to the team, which is why it's worth taking some at-bats and playing time from one of those young players, but he can't take all of the playing time.
This is all secondary, though. McCutchen is here to hit first and foremost, and if he has to field, he has to field. In a way, this situation is probably a lot easier next year (assuming he returns) because Choi and Santana would be free agents, giving McCutchen the inside track for just that starting DH job.
For now, though, he needs to field, and while his workload needs to be very much considered, it's reasonable to assume he can give several hundred innings of respectable defense in the outfield, if not quality defense.