Pirates' Andrew McCutchen shakes off All-Star snub, hopes to have strong 2nd half

On the eighth anniversary of his All-Star Game home run, Andrew McCutchen was in no mood to reminisce Friday afternoon about playing in the Midsummer Classic.

Asked what he remembers about his solo shot off the American League’s Chris Archer to lead off the sixth inning to join Ralph Kiner, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and Dave Parker as the only Pittsburgh Pirates to homer in an All-Star Game, McCutchen gave an abbreviated answer: not much.

“Too long ago,” McCutchen said. “Me and the All-Star Game haven’t been too good of friends lately.”

On July 14th, 2015, Andrew McCutchen became the first Pirate to hit a home run in the All-Star Game since Dave Parker in 1981. pic.twitter.com/8Fm9mV0gQg

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 14, 2023

McCutchen isn’t happy about being snubbed for a spot in the All-Star Game in Seattle. The 36-year-old Pirates designated hitter was hopeful his strong start to the season — he hit five homers and had 14 RBIs in the opening month — and standout June would push him to a sixth career All-Star appearance and his first since 2015.

“Yeah, I was disappointed,” McCutchen said. “At the time for them, when the votes and stuff were in that last day, I felt like I was in a pretty good spot. That was before the 0-for-17 slide.”

McCutchen slashed .319/.462/.458 in June before his four-game skid entering the break. He landed hard on his right elbow trying to avoid a pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which prompted the Pirates to place him on the 10-day injured list.

J.D. Martinez of the Dodgers and Jorge Soler of the Miami Marlins were selected as the NL representatives at DH, largely because of their home run and RBI numbers. Martinez (22 homers, 62 RBIs) and Soler (23 homers, 51 RBIs) had a decisive edge in those categories over McCutchen (10 homers, 28 RBIs).

“I felt like I was in a good position. I just didn’t have the homers and RBIs that the other two did,” McCutchen said. “If somebody had said, ‘Hey Cutch, all you have to do is hit a bunch of home runs, you’d probably have a chance at the All-Star Game,’ I would’ve had a different approach this year. … It’s doing what I do best, and that’s get on base.”

McCutchen’s .383 on-base percentage ranked seventh in the National League at the break, but he had a .399 OBP before his late-first half slump. He is three home runs shy of reaching 300 for his career, a third major milestone after getting his 2,000th hit and 400th double this season.

The Pirates have used rookie right fielder Henry Davis at the No. 3 spot in the batting order since McCutchen went on the IL, a decision manager Derek Shelton said was designed to take advantage of the All-Star break. McCutchen is eligible to be activated Sunday.

“We were fortunate that we had the four days, but he landed on that thing pretty hard in L.A. that day,” Shelton said. “I think we want to make sure we try to get (the elbow inflammation) out as much as possible. That’s the most important thing. He’s eligible on Sunday. Hopefully, we can get him off on Sunday and get him back out there.”

The elbow has been an aggravation since spring training, but McCutchen doesn’t believe it affects his play at the plate or, at least, he approaches at-bats that way. But McCutchen also is trying to be smart, knowing that falls against the Oakland A’s and Dodgers affected his elbow. He appreciates that going on the IL allowed him time to recover without missing too many games.

“I’m going to keep that mentality as much as I can,” McCutchen said. “But reality says that this is going to affect you in some way. Obviously, if you’re dealing with something that you don’t normally deal with when you’re fine and healthy then, yeah, it’s going to have some negative affect on you sometimes. Not to the point where I feel like I can’t play at all.

“I was always taught that people will take your 70% any day, as opposed to 0%. That’s just the way that I look at it. If I’m hurting myself or the team because of it, I’ll try and take the next step, whatever that is.”

No wonder McCutchen has a simple second-half goal: stay healthy.

“That’s my thing: try and stay healthy and give myself an opportunity to be able to do some things on the field and finish strong for us,” McCutchen said. “Personally, I want to finish strong. I think I can put myself in a good position to be able to do that. Hoping this team can continue to keep working forward and pushing forward with what we’re doing and try to push for the second half and make it interesting.”