Andrew McCutchen has heard the loudest cheers of any player and also experienced some of the darkest days in PNC Park history during the two-decade drought without a winning season, so he understands the frustrations of fans amid the Pittsburgh Pirates’ disappointing start.
The five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP, the catalyst of three consecutive wild-card teams, isn’t fazed by fans in sellout crowds at the home opener and Saturday during Paul Skenes bobblehead day directing “sell the team” toward Pirates chairman Bob Nutting for not spending to their satisfaction on major-league payroll.
“I understand where they’re coming from. I’ve been here long enough, so I get it,” McCutchen said Sunday morning, before the Pirates played the Cleveland Guardians in the finale of a six-game homestand. “I just hate it for the guys who haven’t been a part of it and haven’t been here for very long. They’re like, ‘Man, these people seem pretty upset.’ You have to go out there and try to perform and do well when there’s this cloud over the team.
“Obviously, everyone is trying their best. It’s tough when you’ve got ‘sell the team’ chants going on and you’re trying to compete and do well. It’s just hard, no matter what. You’ve got all that going on around you while you’re trying to focus on doing one thing well and it’s hard to filter out the negative and focus on yourself at that moment. It’s tough. Now you’ve got guys who don’t play every day showing up in the lineup with that cloud over them, it becomes a challenge. The game’s challenging in itself but when you’re dealing with a lot of fans who seem to be fed up with the way things are going it makes it a little more challenging. All we can do is try to do our best as a club to try to block it out and try to win the ballgame, but I can’t control what they do, how they feel. I understand.”
The 38-year-old McCutchen, in his 17th season in the majors and 12th with the Pirates, wasn’t happy that he didn’t play in the 3-0 loss to the Guardians on Saturday. McCutchen wanted to clarify that he didn’t have the day off; he just wasn’t in the starting lineup.
“I’m always upset when I don’t play,” McCutchen said. “I want to play every day.”
Pirates manager Derek Shelton said McCutchen was available but opted instead to use Alexander Canario to pinch-hit for Jack Suwinski with one out and a runner on second base in the seventh inning. McCutchen said he was prepared to hit but knew he wasn’t going to play defense, so he understood if the decision came down to not wanting to “burn two guys.” Canario went down swinging as the Pirates went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
“In that situation, that probably would have been a good situation for me to be in, but I wasn’t going to go out to the outfield right after,” McCutchen said. “It just doesn’t make sense to do that. I’d just be setting myself up for an injury or something. Hitting, yes. I was ready to hit but not play defense. I wasn’t necessarily upset about not coming into the game or anything. It ain’t a day off. It’s a start off. You’re in the game at some point, maybe. I have to stay in the game and be ready because that’s the way this team operates.”
The up-and-down nature of the Pirates’ offense this season has been a source of frustration not only for their fans but players like McCutchen, who is batting .234/.345/.340 with two doubles, one home run, five RBIs and seven runs scored. McCutchen has played in 16 of the first 22 games, starting six at designated hitter and six in right field while two-time All-Star Bryan Reynolds recovered from a shoulder injury.
McCutchen believes using a regular batting lineup could lead to more consistency at the plate, though the Pirates’ depth is being tested with first baseman Spencer Horwitz, second baseman Nick Gonzales and catcher/first baseman Endy Rodriguez on the injured list and catcher Joey Bart and Gold Glove utility infielder Jared Triolo also missing time with injuries.
“You have to be consistent in every way,” McCutchen said. “I don’t know what that entails for us, but I know you are going to constantly have lineup changes and that’s what we seem like we do here. We have a lot of lineup changes. It’s not necessarily the same lineup every day. I think it’s just the more consistency we can find in the lineup and if it’s possible that we’re able to do it and we get some guys — I know that some guys are injured, get them back — maybe we get that opportunity to be more consistent as a lineup. As of right now, we just have to work with what we have and go out there and try to get the job done. That’s all you can do as players and as individuals, is to try and do your job. It’s a lot easier said than done. That’s what we have to do.”
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The Pirates were shut out three times this past week, wasting two quality starts by Paul Skenes and one by Mitch Keller, but scored 10, six and seven runs in the other three games. As McCutchen was talking, two teammates were playing ping-pong in the home clubhouse and his eyes followed the ball bouncing back and forth.
“It’s kind of weird. You can score 10 one day and score zero the next, score seven and score zero the next. It seems to be the back and forth. Yes, that, legitimately,” McCutchen said, pointing to the ping-pong game. “I think if we can find more consistency in the lineup, then that could help us out. That helps consistency, I think.”
McCutchen sparked Monday’s 10-3 win over the Washington Nationals that ended a four-game losing streak by passing out black-and-gold Phiten necklaces to his teammates before the game, then hitting a single and scoring the first run in the first inning. That stopped the boos and “sell the team” chants for one night, but they soon returned. McCutchen said he will keep what he tells his teammates private, but his message to Pirates fans is simple.
“When I hear it — as much as I hate to hear it — I also understand,” McCutchen said. “So, I’m going to do my best to perform because I’m not trying to end my career losing. I’ll tell you that right now: I don’t want to end my career and hat’s off, I lost. I’m trying to do what I can. I want to do my best. I know the guys in here, they want to do their best. That’s just not how I pictured things going. I’m just going to bear down as much as I can individually, do my job individually and help in any way that I can because that’s you can do. You can sit here and mope and complain and cry about it or you can go out there and do something about it — and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”