McCutchen on trade chatter: ‘I want to win here’

Following the Pirates’ 9-4 win over the Padres on Tuesday evening at PNC Park, McCutchen brushed apart latest commerce rumors and iterated his want to win in Pittsburgh.

“That’s simply what Twitter does, proper? Twitter Twitters, proper?” McCutchen mentioned after going 3-for-5. “It’s nothing. You get round this time of the season, individuals are going to begin speaking. You must type of take it with a grain of salt. I didn’t assume a lot about it. We simply have to do what we have to do as an entire and as a membership. It’s one thing I don’t want to fret about.”

McCutchen, on paper, matches the outline of a commerce candidate. The 36-year-old is on a one-year contract and within the midst of his finest offensive season since 2015, slashing .278/.397/.435 with 9 dwelling runs, 9 steals and a 131 wRC+. With the Pirates in fourth place in the NL Centralthere may be actually no scarcity of groups that may categorical an curiosity in including McCutchen to their roster within the pursuit of a championship.

That mentioned, McCutchen’s circumstances are far completely different than that of the everyday commerce candidate given his relationship to the crew and to town. The Pirates (36-42) might reside in fourth place and have misplaced 12 of their final 14, however McCutchen identified that they’re solely 5 video games out of first place with quite a lot of season remaining.

“I’ve vocalized how I felt about being right here and the rationale why I got here again. That stance hasn’t modified,” McCutchen mentioned. “I nonetheless need to be right here regardless. On the identical time, that’s out of my management. I can’t management that. That’s not my name. It’s not like I’ve a no-trade clause or something like that. That’s not on me. All I can say is the place I need to be. On the finish of the day, that has nothing to do with the place I find yourself. I simply have to give attention to the place I’m at proper now. That’s right here.

“I need to win right here. I need to be right here. That’s what I’m going to give attention to. Simply going to maintain persevering with to organize and be right here, and us to attempt to do our greatest to go on the market and win ballgames and get ourselves again on this race, as a result of we’re not far-off from it. Something can occur on this division. Everyone knows that.”