The Pomp And Joe Show
The Limitless Express - Andrew McCutchen's future remains vastly uncertain
26 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the current situation between Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates?
I love you. I love you. They call them trolls or whatever. People that just sit behind a computer in their mom's basement. You idiot. It was a joke. Hold on.
Let me put my wooden teeth in so you can understand me better. And we're sitting here again. We're sitting here again talking about the same thing. Now you're insulting my intelligence.
Now I'm insulting your integrity. That's incringulant. You know what this means, Bob? It's time for the Limitless Express. Let's go on a little ride with our friend.
We have a limitless amount of things to talk about.
Man, do we ever. Limits? What do you got?
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Chapter 2: How did Andrew McCutchen express his frustrations on social media?
Including Pirate Fest this past weekend. Unfortunately, a lot of players were not able to attend in person just because of the weather and travel plans and stuff like that. Canceled flights. But during the ever so popular Ask Pirates Management section of Pirates Fest... Ben Charrington was asked about Andrew McCutcheon.
And basically what Charrington said, this was the quote, so much respect for Andrew. That relationship is really important to us. It will continue to communicate with him directly as the team comes together. We have more work to do. Charrington basically made it sound like, yeah, Andrew McCutcheon is not coming back, but he left the door open to it. So a lot of people are complaining that,
Hey, did the Pirates approach this properly? Should they have just told McCutcheon, we just don't want to bring you back? It kind of seems like he is...
shaky ground right now of he's in limbo if he could come back so Andrew McCutcheon went at our guy Josh Roundtree on Twitter Roundtree said Pirates fans got a three-year reunion tour with McCutcheon and they never won more than 76 games I respect what he's meant to the city but he's 39 and at some point you had to just consider moving on so McCutcheon responded quote
I wonder, did the Cardinals do this with Wainwright, Pujols, and Yachty? Dodgers to Kershaw, Tigers to Miggy. The list goes on and on. If this is my last year, it would have been nice to meet the fans one last time as a player.
Yeah, and he was going at the Pirates there, not Roundtree. He was going at the Pirates. And Bob, I think the bottom line for me here is... The problem, the core problem in this situation is what a lot of us have faced, whether someone's breaking up with us or we're breaking up with them. The best way to do it is to. Rip off the bandaid, say this isn't working anymore. I'm sorry.
I'm leaving whatever or have them do it to you. It's actually the kind thing to do instead of just never approaching it, trying to avoid it, having it linger. That's worse. And this is a perfect example of that. They should have told Andrew McCutcheon three months ago. We're done. Love you. Want to have you be part of the franchise in the future. We're going to have a night for you.
You can come to Pirate Fest and say goodbye to the fans. That would be great. Instead, this, and it's the Pirates' fault, but also McCutcheon needs to know that there are better options at DH. You know what I mean? The Pirates should have just told him months ago, you're done, invited him to this, and that would have been the end of it.
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Chapter 3: What did Ben Charrington say about McCutchen's future with the Pirates?
Instead, this is what they created.
Well, I think also he goes at the end of the year and leaves doors open for himself. He doesn't say if he's done, if he wants to be done, if he's going to retire. I think you're right. There has to be better communication on both sides there. But I think they made their point very clear.
They went out and brought in some bats, one of whom is going to be a designated hitter, to try to upgrade the designated hitter spot. Now, he claims he still plays defense, but nobody wants to really play defense with him. He hasn't been in there too often. I just think it's time to upgrade the roster.
Don't you owe it to him to tell him if he's not coming back? He's Andrew McCutcheon. You need to tell him.
Yes. But they should have had this conversation at the end of last year. It should have been well done.
They should have precipitated that conversation.
Yeah, fine. They have to. They both needed to talk about it and got it out of the way.
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Chapter 4: Should the Pirates have communicated differently with McCutchen?
And they had to say to him clearly, Andrew, you've had a wonderful career. We'll do everything to make sure that legacy is protected for all time, but we have to move in another direction. And if he had a problem with that, then that's on him.
I agree 100%. But as it stands, it's their problem. Plus, Charrington's leaving the door open still.
So what do you think you'll get from a 39-year-old Andrew McCutcheon? How often will he play and how often will he DH? I guess that's the question you need to ask.
The question I'm asking is are there better options at DH? And I would say yes. Virtually every nationally designated hitter last year was better than McCutcheon. Virtually every one of them. If you look across and you see the guys that were their team's primary DH, everybody, I mean, I'm not going to, it would be unfair to pick Schwarber or Otani or people like that. Christian Jelic.
So I'll just go with Yvonne Herrera for the Cardinals. 19 homers, 837 OPS. Josh Bell, 22 home runs, 747 OPS. Gavin Sheets. The list goes on and on. Right. McCutcheon slipped. He's 39. He went down to a 700 OPS. He hit 239. His number slipped. It's time. Just tell him it's time.
Yeah. It's as simple as that. You say, look, all due respect. Like I said, we're going to protect your legacy. We're going to enhance it. We're going to make things. As far as playing another year, They have to make decisions that are best for their franchise. You can argue they haven't been the best at doing that over the years, too.
No, they've been the worst at doing it.
To me, they brought in O'Hearn to be that guy. If you have him back, it's going to be how many times will he actually play in a game over the course of a week?
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of McCutchen's potential departure?
If you're going to play him only against left-handed pitchers, that's going to be very infrequently, I would think. They're not going to play him in a position.
You can't reserve a roster spot for that. I think our friend Limit still wants McCutcheon on the team. Would you like to make that case, O'Limitless Wonder?
Yeah, so I want him on the team as the 26th man, and here's why. So I still think that he is valuable against left-handed pitching as their DH because you have a left-handed bat in Ryan O'Hearn. So you could also move O'Hearn to right field whenever necessary. I would be okay with McCutcheon in right for a game or two. Nothing too substantial whenever you need him in a pinch.
But to be able to have a veteran bat like that, that can come off the bench in the sixth, seventh, eighth inning, something like that, to be able to pinch hit, or also bat against left-handers when they are a very significantly left-handed heavy lineup, I think he is valuable in that regard. Not as a consistent starter five or six days a week, but as somebody that can play in a pinch.
And I don't think that that extra roster spot that you're giving to McCutcheon weighs all that much when you have a lot of versatility in terms of Garcia, the outfielder they got, Mangum, And Jared Triolo, they could play every infield position.
So in other words, a guy who almost never plays is worth a roster spot? Not for me.
Instead of a guy like, you know, Alexander Canario or another depth infielder that doesn't need to be out there?
Well, why would you think those guys would be on the team this year? They've improved their team. Plus, just to throw in here, McCutcheon had 10 home runs against righties last year and only three against lefties.
Well, yeah, you face right-handed pitching significantly more than you do face left-handed pitching.
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Chapter 6: How do other teams handle similar situations with veteran players?
He was another guy.
Yeah. They all thought they could still play. It's like any breakup. In life or in sports, you're going to hurt people's feelings. There's going to be resentments. Just do it and then move on because you know what? Those things are going to happen either way, and they're going to be worse if you lead somebody on to believe that you still want to be with them.
And that's where we're headed right now because there hasn't been any communication about it. Do you agree with that part of it, Limits?
Well, yeah, they've not handled it well, which probably isn't the most surprising thing. But I think that... That's a good line, Bob, isn't it, by Limits? It is. They need to be transparent with them. And I think you're entirely right, Joe. It's too late for that. Well, yeah, I mean, this needed to happen in October, in November.
The other part of this is he's not even on the team. Right.
So they've had Pirates alumni that have come back to Pirate Fest. I would have given him the invitation regardless. Maybe that would have made it a little bit more messy to say, hey, you're Andrew McCutcheon. Yeah, you could come to Pirate Fest. You could sign some autographs. You can meet people, especially with a lot of players not in attendance because of the weather.
That could have helped further smooth some things over.
Yeah, but he wants to know if he's going to be on a roster before any of this happens.
The invitation needed to be on a pink slip. Like, it's all right. We're done, and you're invited. Maybe he doesn't show up like you said, Bob. Then that's on him. Listen, this has been an enjoyable, fun, unexpected, and from his numbers, pretty fruitful.
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Chapter 7: What are the arguments for keeping McCutchen on the roster?
Do you think that'll pave a little bit?
No, I don't. I still think there's maybe a 15% chance. What would you put it at? Yeah, that. Probably a little less than that.
City dweller? At some point, you have to move on with this. As great as he's been, and no one will ever lose sight of what he meant to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I'm at about 25% because I feel like if they truly did want him back, then it would have happened by now. Maybe they are waiting for another chip to fall with a third baseman and who they might acquire in a trade or free agency for a roster spot.
I wish they would figure that out quickly, too. Here we are heading into spring training almost, and there's nothing on that.
And your point was valid limits in retrospect that he had way more at-bats against righties. But still, it's not like he absolutely smashed left-handed pitching.
No, but I mean, still hitting .270 against lefties when batting average is so significantly down throughout baseball and a .389 slug is pretty good against left-handed pitching. Yeah, I'd take that. It's okay. I can find better, but thanks. You're going to find a... journeyman bench bat or a young player that takes limited at-bats and hit better than that?
I want a legitimate third baseman.
I want someone who can be on the field, who can hit a lot of home runs, and there's no movement on the Suarez. I'm just very curious about what's happening here. Why is no one... Maybe, you know, I look, there are only like three teams that really could use a third baseman. Now maybe some people view him as a bat only, but what is taking so long to figure out whether or not?
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for the Pirates and McCutchen?
Maybe it's a little bit valuable. I'd rather have something be more valuable.
I would understand that point if this was five or six years ago when there was no National League DH because you use guys off your bench so much more in whether it was a double switch or pinch hitting for the pitcher.
I don't know, man. A platoon DH who never plays the field is a hell of a way to use a roster spot unless he's absolutely annihilating left-handed pitching, which he did not do.
They go out there and sign Eugenio Suarez and have him at third base and they want to use that roster spot for somewhere else. I'm fine with it. If you add somebody else, if that's what they're waiting for, try to add a significant bat that takes away that spot for McCutcheon, I get it. But right now, with the way their roster is constructed, I think there is one spot for him.
I just looked at these splits with Ryan O'Hearn because I'm interested now to find out what he's doing. Last year, 281 average, 17 home runs, 63 runs batted in. Against lefties, he only had 97 at-bats. Three home runs, 15 runs batted in, and a .278 average against lefties. Against righties, 14 home runs, 48 at-bats, and a .281 average. The OPS, .832 average.
I mean, I see that he can get the job done against lefties, if I'm looking at this correctly. 97 at-bats, 3-0 runs, 15 runs batted in, 278 batting average, 832 OPS against lefties.
That's pretty good. He had a better batting average, better OPS, better slugging percentage, and better on base than McCutcheon against lefties. What do you say to that, O Limitless Wonder?
Well, that's why I have him as my starter, as the guy that goes up against right-handers. No, no, no.
He did that against lefties.
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