Andrew McCutchen has played over 1,300 career games in center field, and the San Francisco Giants are desperate to find a veteran player who can cover the vast territory of AT&T Park.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are reportedly interested in dealing McCutchen, and the Giants would love to add an All-Star caliber player whose salary would keep San Francisco under the competitive balance tax threshold next year.
The Giants also need a power bat, and McCutchen is coming off a season in which he blasted 28 home runs, marking his best total since he slammed 31 in 2012.
So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise when Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported Thursday morning that the Giants have had ‘recent’ talks with the Pirates regarding their franchise cornerstone.
Source: #SFGiants and #Pirates have had recent Andrew McCutchen trade conversations. Story here: https://t.co/yKyDV5tqBA @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 4, 2018
It’s a match that sounds perfect for a potential immediate impact player and a franchise attempting to create an instant turnaround. In many ways, it is.
McCutchen is only owed $14.5 million in 2018, and his contract expires at the end of the season. McCutchen’s bat would slide into the middle of an order that includes Evan Longoria and Buster Posey, and his presence would be a welcome addition to the Giants’ clubhouse.
However, there’s a serious question as to whether McCutchen still has the range to serve as an above average center fielder, which is clearly what the Giants are looking to find. General manager Bobby Evans began the offseason determined to improve the team’s outfield defense, and while McCutchen is an obvious upgrade over Denard Span, he ranked 82nd in Major League Baseball last season in Outs Above Average (a new defensive metric).
Prior to the start of the 2017 season, the Pirates planned to move McCutchen to right field to allow Starling Marte to take over in center, but Marte was suspended 80 games for using PEDs, so Pittsburgh wound up keeping McCutchen at his customary position. Though McCutchen did play a handful of games in right field, he spent the majority of the year in center field where his defensive was just average.
Would the Giants be willing to trade a high-upside prospect like Chris Shaw for an ordinary defensive center fielder on an expiring contract?
If it means adding McCutchen’s bat to the order, it’s a deal worth making.
Though San Francisco shouldn’t consider swapping top outfield prospect Heliot Ramos for any player who is only contractually obligated to play one season for the Giants, surrendering a prospect like Shaw –an outfielder who is probably a natural designated hitter– in a trade with Pittsburgh is the price of doing business. Evans and vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean insist the Giants can contend for a playoff spot in 2018, and if they hope to do so, they’ll likely need to part with a coveted asset. If Ramos is off the table and Tyler Beede figures to factor into the conversation for the No. 5 starter job, than San Francisco might have no choice but to include its only other high-profile prospect in a deal for McCutchen.
While adding McCutchen to their 2018 roster might not solve all of the Giants’ outfield issues, it would afford San Francisco additional flexibility this offseason and in the years to come. Evans and manager Bruce Bochy might agree that McCutchen is best served starting in center field in an outfield that includes Hunter Pence and a platoon of Austin Slater and Jarrett Parker. However, the Giants might also see McCutchen’s declining defense as a reason to start him in a corner outfield position, and add a cheap center fielder like Jarrod Dyson or Cameron Maybin on the free agent market.
Because McCutchen’s 2018 salary is $14.5 million, the Giants might be priced out of pursuing a player like Jon Jay or Carlos Gomez, but there is a bit of flexibility under the threshold of $197 million to add another piece, especially in a deflated market.
One of the most important aspects of acquiring McCutchen, as opposed to signing a free agent like Jay Bruce or Lorenzo Cain, is that San Francisco wouldn’t have additional money tied up beyond 2018 with another aging veteran. A deal for Bruce would likely require a commitment of at least three years for the Giants, while a contract for Cain might take a four or five year commitment. For a franchise that already has more money set aside for players in 2019 and 2020 than any other in baseball, any additional multi-year contracts would add to a growing burden.
And with a monster free agent class preparing to break the bank next year, the Giants might have buyer’s remorse if they agree to terms with a high-profile outfielder a year too soon.
The only real concerns the Giants should have about swapping a prospect package for McCutchen are the significance of the Pirates’ asking price, and the potential roster makeup of the franchise moving forward. Would San Francisco be comfortable acquiring McCutchen and then putting a halt on its offseason spending? There’s a possibility the Giants wouldn’t want to risk adding another free agent in fear of surpassing the CBT threshold, which might create issues for the team’s lineup.
Who hits leadoff if the Giants swing a deal for McCutchen, and then move forward with a Slater/Parker platoon? Does Joe Panik slide to the top of the order, with McCutchen, Longoria and Posey following in whatever manner Bochy prefers? Would Pence bat at the top of the lineup to keep Panik in his natural No. 2 slot? Ultimately, it’s difficult to gauge how the Giants would construct their lineup because the team would still lack a prototypical leadoff hitter, and it’s not clear whether they would still look to add through free agency.
Of course, Evans could surprise everyone and work a trade for McCutchen as well as Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton or Milwaukee’s Keon Broxton, but doing so would essentially require the Giants to gut what’s left of a relatively barren farm system. After committing to a structural overhaul of the Giants’ Minor League system earlier this offseason, perhaps the franchise is willing to sell the stock of its remaining assets and start fresh with a new batch of prospects this June. For the first time since 2008, the Giants will have a top five pick in the draft, and this year, they’ll have the second choice in each round.
For a Giants team that finished 64-98 last season, no path to potential improvement appears to be off the table. After proving they were willing to swing for the fences by pursuing Giancarlo Stanton in a trade that would have pushed San Francisco over the luxury tax threshold, the Giants regrouped and dealt Matt Moore before moving Denard Span in the trade for Longoria.
The first piece to the Giants’ offseason puzzle –solving the black hole at third base– is complete, and now Evans is tasked with piecing together an outfield that can help the franchise compete.