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The Rangers are bringing veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen aboard on a minor league contract with an invite to huge league camp, studies Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning Information. The Aegis Sports activities shopper’s base wage can be $1.25MM if he makes the crew, per Grant. It will probably max out round $2.5MM if he makes the roster and hits his full slate of incentives, per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports activities.
McCutchen, 39, is years faraway from peak type however nonetheless turned in a .239/.333/.367 slash (95 wRC+) final yr in what now seems like his closing season with the Pirates. His .267/.353/.389 output towards left-handed pitching was a bit above common, and he knocked lefties round at a heftier .261/.383/.410 clip as just lately as 2023.
For the previous three years, McCutchen has suited again up for his unique membership in Pittsburgh, the place he was a first-round decide who broke out as a star and ultimately received Nationwide League MVP honors. The hope for each McCutchen and the Pirates was that he’d return to play out his closing seasons the place all of it started, main a extra aggressive Bucs membership again to the playoffs within the twilight of his profession.
That storybook ending by no means got here to be. Pittsburgh struggled in every of the previous three seasons, ending underneath .500 annually alongside the way in which. The Bucs fired supervisor Derek Shelton final Could and took a extra pressing and aggressive method to increase their offense this winter. Pittsburgh acquired Brandon Lowe by way of commerce and signed free brokers Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna. They’d even larger targets all through the winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto, Eugenio Suárez). All these pursuits solid doubt on whether or not there was room for yet another go-around with McCutchen on what’d have been a extra nostalgic/sentimental reunion. Final month’s signing of Ozuna all however confirmed that the e book on the three-year reunion with McCutchen had been closed.
McCutchen now heads to the Rangers in hopes of grabbing a bench spot. His right-handed bat makes for a pure platoon complement alongside designated hitter Joc Pederson. Cutch might additionally see a while within the outfield corners when Texas faces off towards left-handed starters, with Wyatt Langford shifting over to middle subject instead of lefty-swinging Evan Carter, who has simply 5 hits in 68 profession plate appearances towards southpaws.
There’s little sense citing McCutchen’s profession .289/.387/.514 slash towards lefties, since a lot of that’s influenced by otherworldly manufacturing throughout his MVP peak. Nonetheless, even over the three seasons in his late-career return to PNC Park, McCutchen hit .244/.353/.392 in 435 plate appearances. That form of manufacturing is extra strong than eye-catching, but it surely’d nonetheless mark an improve over the terrible .225/.290/.363 batting line the Rangers turned in versus left-handed pitching in 2025.
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