Andrew McCutchen has played a lot of baseball over the course of his career. After today, 2,044 games to be exact. Of those games, 1,771 of been somewhere in the outfield.
However, it’s been 354 days exactly since McCutchen last took the outfield in a game. When he came back to the Pirates ahead of the 2023 season, the plan was to use Cutch both in his natural outfielder positions, and as a designated hitter on some other days.
The Pirates leaned heavily on the DH side for Cutch in the early months last season. Through April and May in 2023, McCutchen played 49 total games, but only 8 of those came at right field.
It was rumored that a nagging elbow injury was preventing McCutchen from properly being able to play the position, and indeed an elbow issue landed him on the 10-day Injured List in early July last year, but by that point he had already been a full-time designated hitter for several weeks.
That trend continued after being activated off the IL, and he has not actually played in any other position since May 30th, when he started in right field for Pittsburgh.
Since then, he has played 101 games straight games as a designated hitter over the last two years. But that streak ended today, when he returned to right field for the series finale against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
An interview with Cutch was shown during SportsNet Pittsburgh’s pregame show, and the veteran said that he was a little nervous to return to the outfield. As Hannah Mears would say later on, it’s hard to imagine somebody as experienced as McCutchen being nervous.
But in talking about getting over the nerves, he mentioned that once the first fly ball comes to you and you take care of it, you start to lock in.
And sure enough, the very first flyball off Pirates starter Mitch Keller came to right field, where it landed in McCutchen’s glove.
Overall, McCutchen had a fine day in the outfield. He looked comfortable out in right field and he didn’t appear as someone who hasn’t played out there in so long.
He caught 4 flyouts against the Cubs, and his fielding of balls in play was on par with anyone else who has played right field for the team this year.
There was one minor mix up on a triple from Mike Tauchman; the ball soared to the right field wall, almost becoming a home run but instead falling next to the ivy. McCutchen hesitated for a second during the chase before retrieving the ball.
Maybe Cutch thought he was closer to the wall than he actually was? I’m honestly not sure, but with the way Tauchman was running, he likely would have reached third base anyways.
Other than that, a reliably good day from that spot by McCutchen.
It’s unclear how much more time the Pirates will plan to utilize him in the outfield. Part of that is probably up to Cutch and how he is feeling (trainers did pay him a small visit after the second inning, but it appeared to be nothing as he was back for the third).
He was subbed out for Michael A. Taylor in the eighth inning, moving Taylor to center field and swapping places with Jack Suwinski, who took over at right.
But if McCutchen can even split time as the DH and an outfielder, that would allow the Pirates some more flexibility in how they handle things. While McCutchen’s batting average is lower than you might hope (.208 coming into this game), he is still near the top of Pirates players in on-base percentage, at .318.
He is tied for second on the team in walks with Jared Triolo, but Triolo has nearly 20 more plate appearances than McCutchen.
It will be interesting to see how the Pirates handle this moving forward. Seeing Cutch back at right field was an odd sight considering recent history, but it could be a sign of things to come as this season goes along.
McCutchen went 2 for 4 at the plate with a walk, showcasing a good day at the plate as well in a 3-2 Pirates win.
(Featured photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
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