Yesterday morning, the Pirates made surprising headlines when they signed free agent Marcell Ozuna.

The deal, pending a physical, will pay Ozuna $12 million for the 2026 season and carries a mutual option for 2027, which would bump his salary to $16 million.

For the Pirates, it’s another signing that can help boost the abysmal offense they’ve had for years. Ozuna, a career .269/.336/.469 (.806 OPS) hitter who has hit at least 20 home runs in each of the last four years, joins a list of acquisitions that are geared heavily towards the batting department.

However, this deal almost entirely ensures that Andrew McCutchen will not return to the Pirates next season.

Over the last three seasons, Ozuna has played a grand total of two games in the field, both coming in left field for Atlanta in 2023. Since then, he has been exclusively a designated hitter, playing his last 307 games in that role.

In that regard, Ozuna and McCutchen are very similar. Since coming back to Pittsburgh in 2023, McCutchen has only appeared in the outfield 20 times, starting 16 games and completing 12 of them. The vast majority of his work has come as a designated hitter.

McCutchen has previously maintained that he is still more than capable of playing the outfield if asked, and the numbers state that as long as he is not an everyday member in the grass, he can be a serviceable outfielder.

But, bringing McCutchen back in 2026 was handing him the designated hitter job once again. Now, that job goes to Ozuna.

Objectively, there’s a solid argument argument that Ozuna is the better signing for a Pirates team that is trying to win now. Yes, last season saw Ozuna struggle at the plate, he still has a better track record with the bat.

In 2024, he slashed .302/.378/.546 (.925 OPS) with 39 home runs and 104 RBI in 162 games and finished fourth in NL MVP voting. If the Pirates are getting a guy anywhere close to that, their offense has a legitimate chance.

McCutchen was a fine batter over the last three seasons, but he undeniably has a lower ceiling than Ozuna, and is four years older. Nostalgia is a tricky thing to deal with in sports, and if you’re taking out the emotional or fan element of building this Pirates team next year, perhaps this is the right move to take.

That’s all fair. But McCutchen still deserved better.

And it isn’t necessarily about the Pirates not bringing him back for this season and how those negotiations (or lack thereof) went. It’s much more about how the organization handled his return over the last three years.

When McCutchen came back as a free agent in 2023, his return marked one of the joyous days in the history of that ballpark. Hailed as a hero coming back home when he made his home debut that season, McCutchen took on a new role from the one he had during his first stint in town.

Pittsburgh’s 2017 trade that saw him dealt to San Francisco was heartbreaking for fans. An NL MVP in 2013, McCutchen was the face of relevant baseball in this town for the first time in two decades. It was his prominence, both in the outfield and at the plate, that helped the Pirates to that magic night at PNC Park on October 1st, 2013.

His departure, along with Gerrit Cole just two days prior, marked the end of an era in Pittsburgh and the beginning of another lengthy rebuild that the Pirates are still trying to get out of.

To have him want to come back was truly special.

While he was still a productive batter, he also took on a leadership role on a very young and inexperienced team. In that first year, the Pirates did take a legitimate step, capping off a 14-win improvement from the 100-loss campaign in 2022.

The time to start really gearing up was in 2024. With the arrival of Paul Skenes in May, it was time for McCutchen (whose initial trade brought in star outfielder Bryan Reynolds) to have a full-circle moment and help lead this new generation of Buccos back into the playoffs.

The Pirates even bought at the trade deadline that season, but their poorly-constructed roster fell apart almost immediately after, plummeting their playoff chances.

In 2025, the team opted to retain manager Derek Shelton, which led to a 12-26 start to the season before they finally relieved him of his post. But by then, it was too late to save the season.

McCutchen has little fault in the shortcomings of this team over the last three seasons. He has finished at least top-five on the team in OPS in every year since his return, including tying for third on the team last year with an even .700.

For each of his three seasons, Pittsburgh’s offense relied too much on McCutchen to produce. Instead of making him a middle-of-the-lineup bat, he was expected to be one of the team’s top producers. That process didn’t really change even as he climbed more into his late 30s, and fan outrage only grew as more and more time went by without improvement.

McCutchen didn’t come here to finish double-digit games underwater all three years. His reunion tour wasn’t supposed to just be an extended trip down memory lane and a chance to reconnect with one of the greatest Pirates of the 21st century.

It was supposed to mark the end of a lengthy rebuild and the return of postseason ball to a city that cherishes it like few others can.

Now, the Pirates seem finally trying to accomplish that mission…and they’re doing it without him.

From strictly a baseball perspective, perhaps that’s the right decision. The last three years have seen this franchise stuck spinning its tires and going nowhere. Fans wanted real change, real investment, and real action. With the additions of Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, and now other guys like Ozuna, that is finally happening.

But for a franchise icon, a Pittsburgh hero, and an all-time fan favorite, McCutchen at least deserved the chance to bring Buctober back while he was still here. We may look back on these 2026 Pirates as the ones who finally got over the hump, but it’s a shame that McCutchen’s last years in Pittsburgh were wasted in the process.