Pirates by Position: Adding Andrew McCutchen creates competition in crowded outfield

In an offseason when the Pittsburgh Pirates weighed their outfield options, starting with whether to grant Bryan Reynolds’ trade request, one comment captured how much has changed.

“I know we don’t talk lineups here,” manager Derek Shelton said of Andrew McCutchen, “but Opening Day he’s going to be in there.”

McCutchen’s return on a one-year, $5 million contract complicates a crowded position. The Pirates have 10 outfielders on the 40-man roster who will be competing for four spots.

One of them will be occupied — at least on a part-time basis — by the 36-year-old McCutchen, a five-time All-Star and 2013 NL MVP. Where McCutchen played center field in his first nine seasons with the Pirates, he’s more likely to play the corner spots while working into the designated hitter rotation at this stage of his 14-year major league career.

Asked what he hopes to accomplish in his return to the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen shouts, “I want to win!” Here’s the rest of his response: pic.twitter.com/MV70yFbU76

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) January 20, 2023

“The original thought was, how does he fit in? We have a bunch of young outfielders, and where are we going to put him and how is it going to affect other people?” Shelton said last month. “I think we went into the offseason — and I think we’ll go into every offseason — with the thought of how we want to make our club better now, but we have to be very thoughtful of what the long-term effect is with our players.”

The short-term effect is expected to provide an upgrade to an outfield that started last season with Reynolds flanked by Ben Gamel and Cole Tucker and backed up by Jake Marisnick after Anthony Alford and Greg Allen were injured in the final week of spring training. Only Reynolds remains with the Pirates, and it might be a question of how long.

The rest of the outfield decisions will be dictated by the domino effect of what the Pirates do with Reynolds, who requested a trade after turning down a reported six-year, $76 million contract offer. General manager Ben Cherington has been adamant that his hand won’t be forced, and his asking price for return packages was viewed as astronomical.

“Nothing’s changed from what I’ve said before: We love Bryan. He’s an important part of what we’re doing,” Cherington said. “We’re looking forward to getting to spring training. He’s a big part of that.”

Bryan Reynolds gets us going! pic.twitter.com/EWT9BHn2Ex

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 12, 2022

If the Pirates keep Reynolds, who slashed .262/.345/.461 with 19 doubles, 27 home runs and 62 RBIs and led the team in most offensive categories, they have to decide whether he stays in center or moves back to left. Reynolds had a sub-par season defensively, with minus-14 defensive runs saved per Sports Info Solutions, and shifted to the corner in the final week to allow rookie Ji Hwan Bae a chance to play center.

Where the Pirates leaned on a half-dozen rookies in the outfield last season — Bae, Jack Suwinski, Tucupita Marcano, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba and Travis Swaggerty — there might be room for only one to start this season. They traded for Connor Joe and claimed Ryan Vilade on waivers from Colorado — both also can play infield positions — to add competition and depth to the position.

“I think that’s one thing that’s going to help us all get better, really,” Suwinski said. “We’ve got to push ourselves in here, within this group. I think if we do that, then everyone gets better, as opposed to just letting that other side, that other team fuel our competition. I think if we compete within ourselves, it will push us to get a little bit uncomfortable, but it will push us to new limits. It’s that loving, friendly competition between ourselves. That only helps the team.”

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Jack Suwinski crushes 3 home runs and wins the game for the @Pirates. pic.twitter.com/MRAJ2n0ZMo

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 19, 2022

Suwinski finished second on the team with 19 home runs in 106 games after making the leap from Double-A to the majors, including a three-homer game in a walk-off win on Father’s Day. But he had a 30.6% strikeout rate and endured an 0-for-29 slump that drew a midseason demotion, and his home-away splits were drastic. Suwinski slashed .282/.373/.609 with nine doubles, 16 homers and 31 RBIs in 56 games at PNC Park but batted .112 on the road.

“I’d love to take that moving forward and add more things,” Suwinski said, “just like more balls in play, more early aggressiveness, get that early-in-the-count pitch instead of fouling it off.”

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Where Bae and Marcano also will factor into the competition with Rodolfo Castro for the starting spot at second base, Mitchell and Smith-Njigba are more suited for the corners. Swaggerty is a natural center fielder known for his defense who hasn’t hit consistently in the minors.

And there’s a wild card in veteran Miguel Andujar, who was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees late last September. Andujar had three doubles and nine RBIs in nine games with the Pirates and avoided arbitration by signing a one-year deal for $1.525 million. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Pirates designated Andujar for assignment in a gamble that no team would claim that contract.

Cherington anticipates plenty of competition in the outfield with no guarantees on playing time like last season, when many of the rookies were promoted out of necessity because of injuries.

“It’s going to need to be earned. I think that’s what they all want anyway,” Cherington said, indicating that some of the rookies are likely to start the season in the minors. “As you look at it right now on paper, yeah, we’re going to have some guys in Indy. I don’t know who those are, but some guys are going to play in Indy to start the season. And that’s fine. There’s opportunity there to keep getting better and force our hand at some point. So we feel good about that level of depth and the competition that comes with it.”