10 MLB moves that need to happen before the offseason ends

3. Giants trade for Andrew McCutchen

With starter Gerrit Cole moving (probably!), the Pittsburgh Pirates should be signalling their intentions to blow things up and set sail on a multi-year rebuilding process. All-Star and former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen is their big remaining trade chip (with infielder Josh Harrison to a lesser extent), and he will be a free agent at the end of the year. There’s no point holding onto McCutchen for one more year after aggressively shopping him last winter. Time to make a clean break with one of the more iconic Pirates since Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell.

The San Francisco Giants have been most strongly connected to the Pirates and McCutchen this offseason, and they have a need for center fielder. The Giants were over the luxury tax threshold last season and already have over $150 million committed to less than half their roster for 2018. Unless the front office is willing to completely blow past the threshold, San Francisco has room for only one big move this winter.

While I love the idea of the Giants trading for McCutchen to play left field and signing free agent Lorenzo Cain to play center, that would come as a shocker given the likely financial constraints the front office is working with. That could be completely off base, and the Giants could use their one-time payment from BAMTech to blow their budget in an effort to stay competitive before their core ages out of its championship window completely.

Getting both McCutchen and Cain is a huge longshot, but the Giants do have enough depth left in their thin farm system to pull off a trade with the Pirates. Their lineup still won’t win many slugfests, but picking up McCutchen and Evan Longoria in the same offseason puts the Giants much closer to getting back to the playoffs in 2018.