{"id":467073,"date":"2026-02-11T02:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467073\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:16:07","slug":"gm-ben-cherington-says-andrew-mccutchen-will-always-be-a-pirate-even-if-former-mvp-has-no-spot-on-26-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467073\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Ben Cherington says Andrew McCutchen \u2018will always be a Pirate\u2019 even if former MVP has no spot on \u201926 roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> general manager Ben Cherington said Tuesday the team \u201cwill never shut the door\u201d on potentially finding a role for Andrew McCutchen<\/a>, a longtime cornerstone of the franchise.<\/p>\n

The Pirates on Monday reached an agreement with veteran slugger Marcell Ozuna<\/a> on a one-year contract worth $12 million, subject to Ozuna passing a physical. The deal would make it more unlikely McCutchen, who is unsigned, would be needed on the Pirates\u2019 roster. Ozuna would assume the designated hitter role, which was McCutchen\u2019s primary spot in 2025.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old McCutchen is a five-time All-Star and the 2013 NL MVP. He has played 12 of his 17 seasons in the majors with the Pirates.<\/p>\n

Cherington said he believes McCutchen \u201cwill always be a Pirate.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI think most people feel that way. I certainly speak for the organization and that\u2019s how we feel,\u201d Cherington said. <\/p>\n

Even though it appears more unlikely there will be a spot for McCutchen on the roster following the agreement with Ozuna, Cherington said \u201cforever is a long time\u201d and he would not rule out an agreement with McCutchen, who hit .239 with 13 homers last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a moment in time,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s a long time ahead of us. … I don\u2019t think you ever \u2014 the Pirates will never shut the door, completely shut the door, on Andrew McCutchen<\/a>. That\u2019s just how we feel about him. That\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Cherington said the start of spring training in Florida means the Pirates are \u201cfocused on the players that are here, focused on how do we get ready for the 2026 season? … You know longer term, you know we don\u2019t need to make any declaration about the longer term. Just focus on today right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirates manager Don Kelly said McCutchen \u201cis always going to be a Pirate in everyone\u2019s heart\u201d and said, as a former teammate, \u201cyou respect him and everything that he means to the team and the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherington said he hopes to protect the team\u2019s relationship with McCutchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, Andrew\u2019s a Pirate and certainly our desire will be to continue to have a really strong relationship with him into the future, whatever that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherington said his priority has been to make personnel decisions that put the team \u201cin the best position to win more games in 2026.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel confident that every decision we\u2019ve made has been about what we believe is best for the team,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes when you are making those decisions, they\u2019re going to be hard. You know, some of those decisions are hard. And I think that, again, that\u2019s the nature of these things. Tremendous respect for Andrew. And certainly our desire would be to have a strong relationship with him going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said Tuesday the team \u201cwill never shut the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-467073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}