Andrew McCutchen turns 40 this October. Yet his desire to extend his Major League Baseball career runs deep enough that he’s willing to try and make a team to keep it going.
McCutchen agreed to a minor-league contract with the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Morning News reported, ending a three-season rekindling of his relationship with the Pittsburgh Pirates in which the club could not rekindle its days of playoff contention when the outfielder was in MVP form a decade ago.
Though McCutchen batted just .242 in his three-season reunion in Pittsburgh, he remained a league average hitter for the stint, posting a .736 OPS and 104 adjusted OPS as the Pirates continued to struggle creating a contender. This season, the seemingly open invitation McCutchen had in Pittsburgh faded away, as the club signed Ryan O’Hearn to be their primary right fielder.
It seemed a lane might exist for McCutchen to get at-bats against left-handed pitchers, but trades with Boston and Tampa Bay that added Jhostnyxon Garcia and Jake Mangum, respectively, closed that off.
So, McCutchen will aim to win a job out of the Rangers’ camp in Surprise, Arizona. The club has emerging star Wyatt Langford, oft-injured Evan Carter and recently acquired Brandon Nimmo as their primary outfielders, but several iterations remain where McCutchen is a fit, particularly against left-handed pitching.
McCutchen won the 2013 NL MVP for the Pirates and has hit 332 homers that also included stops with San Francisco, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and the New York Yankees.
Andrew McCutchen stats
2025 (PIT): 135 G, .239 AVG, 13 HR, 57 RBIs, .700 OPS
2024 (PIT): 120 G, .232 AVG, 20 HR, 50 RBIs, .739 OPS
2023 (PIT): 112 G, .256 AVG, 12 HR, 43 RBIs, .776 OPS
2022 (MIL): 134 G, .237 AVG, 17 HR, 69 RBIs, .700 OPS
2021 (PHI): 144 G, .222 AVG, 27 HR, 80 RBIs, .778 OPS