Draft Spotlight: Andrew McCutchen

Andrew McCutchen (Photo by Cliff Welch)

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The Pittsburgh Pirates ended a 20-year losing streak and made the National League playoffs in 2013. In the process, Andrew McCutchen was selected the league’s Most Valuable Player and became the face of the franchise. The last time the Pirates had topped .500 and made the playoffs was in 1992. Barry Bonds was the NL MVP that year and the acknowledged face of the franchise.

During his early years with the Pirates, McCutchen never dwelled on the persistent losing in Pittsburgh in the wake of Bonds’ departure. “If people want to put that on us, let them put it on us,” said McCutchen. “We don’t put it on ourselves. We don’t dwell on what happened in the past, because the past is the past and you can’t change that. We want to be a team that wins. That’s the only thing going on with us right now.”

Almost from the beginning, Pirates fans knew there was something special about McCutchen, The team selected him with its first draft choice in 2005, and it quickly became apparent that he was the best prospect the team had drafted since Bonds 20 years earlier. Expectations were heaped upon McCutchen, much as they had been on Bonds.

The son of a minister, McCutchen was taught the importance of maintaining a positive attitude in the face of obstacles during his formative years, and he embraced the role from the day he was drafted with the 11th pick overall out of Fort Meade (Fla.) High, after hitting .709 with 16 homers and 42 RBIs as a senior. “The Pirates showed the most interest in me out of all the teams and they made the best impression,” McCutchen said. “They really stood out in my mind. They made me feel like they were the right organization for me. When it got to the 11th pick and I hadn’t been drafted, I was hoping they would take me.”

The Pirates warmed to the 5-foot-11, 175-pound McCutchen for reasons beyond his impressive track record, which extended back to his days as an eighth grader, when he led high school hitters in Polk County with a .507 average. “Andrew has great athletic ability and speed,” Pirates scouting director Ed Creech said. “Beyond that, he has a big-league bat. He is one of the guys we definitely zeroed in on this spring.”

Creech compared McCutchen with long-time major league outfielder Marquis Grissom, whom Creech once managed in the Montreal Expos system. “Andrew has the same outstanding speed and ability to cover a lot of ground in center field like Grissom,” Creech said. “And like Marquis, he has good power. He’s not going to be a big home run hitter, but he should be able to hit his share. He also has great makeup and comes from a very good family background like Marquis did.”

The Pirates traded center fielder Nate McLouth, probably the team’s most popular player, on June 4, 2009 to clear the position for the 22-year-old McCutchen. He was an immediate hit, quickly affording long-suffering Pirates fans reason for hope with his inspired play at the plate, on the bases and in the field.

“There has been so much talk about Andrew, so much hype the last few years,” said Pirates manager John Russell after McCutchen hit .286 with 12 homers, 54 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 108 games as a rookie. “He had a lot of expectations to live up to, and he did. He got to the major leagues and was comfortable. You don’t see that in every player who comes from the minor leagues. That’s what separates the really good players.”

McCutchen was so confident in his ability that he took his rookie success in stride. “I expected to do well,” he said. “I would have been disappointed if I didn’t.”

McCutchen had an unwavering confidence, and he long had believed it was his destiny to not only become a major league player, but a star. “I was probably 5 years old when I first started playing T-ball and I knew then that playing in the big leagues was what I wanted to do,” McCutchen said.

Much like Bonds a generation earlier, McCutchen became a symbol of hope in Pittsburgh, and both had similar tenures in a Pirates uniform. McCutchen hit .298 with 150 homers, 557 RBIs and 153 stolen bases in his first seven seasons with the Pirates, and led the team to three straight playoff appearances from 2013-2015. Bonds hit .275 with 176 home runs, 556 RBIs and 251 stolen bases in his seven-year tenure in Pittsburgh, and led the Pirates to postseason appearances in each of his final three years with the club.

Unlike Bonds, who bolted Pittsburgh at his first opportunity for the riches of free agency, McCutchen scored additional points with the Pirates fan base by accepting a six-year, $51 million contract extension in 2012 that delayed his free agency and soon proved to be a bargain for the Pirates. He said loyalty was more important than money, a sentiment not often heard in an age of nine-figure contracts for baseball players.