Andrew McCutchen and Pittsburgh Pirates Far Apart on New Deal

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a decision to make.

Should they make an aggressive move now to get Andrew McCutchen under contract?

The Pirates don’t have to do anything.  It really depends on if McCutchen wants to play for pennies next year.  If he doesn’t, then look for Cutch to cave into the leverage that the Pirates currently possess in the contract negotiations.

If McCutchen doesn’t mind the pennies in the present and has his eyes on the future, he will wait it out.  The risk is all on his shoulders in this situation.

But, either way, whoever accepts the risk  – whether it be the Pirates should they lock him up, or Cutch if he decides to wait it out, it looks like the Bucs and Cutch aren’t going to get a deal done in the short term.

The word “compromise” can’t be very interesting to the Pirates right now.  The team has no salaries on the books that would be considered dead weight after this season ends in a few games.

The Pirates have  the cash, but it appears that they won’t cave into the demands from the Cutch camp and assume the risk in signing McCutchen.  (We heard an offer was made last season which the McCutchen camp considered insulting.)

So it appears to be a showdown on Federal Street, and according to the article by Jim Bowden below, both sides are simply glaring at each other right now…as they stand ten blocks apart.

Bowden did some nice work in this article and according to his math the McCutchen deal should be  for a six-year, $47 million contract broken down as follows.

One million in 2012, four million in 2013, seven million in 2014, nine and a half in 2015, eleven and a half in 2016 and thirteen million in 2017.  In the final year a team option would exist with a $1 million buyout. If the option were picked up for $13 million, it would become a seven-year, $59 million deal

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