The San Francisco Giants are a pleasant surprise in the NL West, keeping pace with the likes of the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. However, if the Giants hope to make a real run at the postseason and beyond, they cannot be content with simply...keeping pace. The trade deadline is more than two months away, so they have plenty of time to consider moves. One former Giant who makes a lot of sense only spent a year in the Bay Area, but it was a memorable one. Yes, I'm talking about Andrew McCutchen.
Cutch was dealt once before from the Pirates to the Giants at the 2018 MLB trade deadline. In San Francisco, he put up some respectable numbers, slashing .255/.357/.415 for a slightly above league average OPS. From there, McCutchen went on to play for the Yankees, Phillies and even Brewers before eventually returning to where it all began in Pittsburgh.
As painful as it would be for the Pirates to once again sent Cutch packing out of town, he'd have a far better chance at one last playoff run in San Francisco than he does in the Burgh. The Pirates are a mess, currently sitting in last place in the NL Central. Cutch, meanwhile, is having his best season in quite some time.
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Giants should trade for Andrew McCutchen while they still can
So far this season, McCutchen has accumulated 0.6 WAR in a hybrid outfield/DH role, proving he can still roam the corner outfield at a league average clip. He also has three home runs and a .779 OPS as of this writing, 40 points higher than his 2024 season.
It should be noted that the Giants don't necessarily need McCutchen as much as he needs them. Cutch is wasting away the final productive seasons of his career with the Pirates, and as much as he loves Pittsburgh, he has yet to win a World Series. The Giants may well fall short of that goal as well, but at least they have a chance to taste postseason glory. The Pirates could very well be entering another rebuild. At 38 years old, McCutchen deserves better.
It's unclear where McCutchen would slide in with San Francisco. He may be best served in a bench role, getting regular at-bats behind Heliot Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski in a corner outfield slot, or Wilmer Flores at DH. Either way, Cutch is an important clubhouse presence who values the history of baseball by the bay.
He'd likely come cheap, which should only make such a deal easier to put together for Buster Posey.