Pirates could eye former Reds slugger if Andrew McCutchen era finally ends

If you’re a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, you don’t need any explanation of what Andrew McCutchen means to Pittsburgh. He’s beyond just a veteran bat. He’s the face, the soundtrack for a lot of fans, the guy whose at-bat still makes PNC Park feel like something might happen.

But baseball doesn’t do sentimentality for long, and Father Time always wins. So the Pirates have to prepare for a world where the McCutchen era is truly over — even if that thought feels a little gross.

That’s where a name like Miguel Andújar starts to sneak in and make some sense. Andújar isn’t a perfect replacement for Cutch –– nobody is. But what he can be is a younger, right-handed hitting option who covers some of the same practical needs.

And it’s not like he’d be walking into Pittsburgh cold, either. Andújar was a Pirate in 2022 and 2023, so the fit and the environment wouldn’t be new. As a DH-friendly bat with the ability to moonlight at the infield and outfield corners when the roster gets banged up, he checks a lot of the “keep the lineup functional” boxes.

Pirates’ looming Andrew McCutchen decision could open a surprising lane to Miguel Andújar

In 2025, Andújar quietly turned in one of those under-the-radar seasons while splitting time between the Athletics and Reds. He finished with a .318 average, .352 OBP, .470 slugging, 10 homers, 44 RBI, and an .822 OPS in 341 plate appearances. Not MVP-level, but it’s absolutely “stabilize the lineup” stuff — which, yeah, still describes a Pittsburgh need.

The Pirates have already shown they’re shopping in this lane. They added Brandon Lowe and brought in Ryan O’Hearn. If you’re building a lineup around Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz, and a pitching staff headlined by Paul Skenes, you can’t keep pretending the offense is optional. Adding Andújar would quietly raise the floor.

Andújar fits the “cost-effective upgrade” template the Pirates tend to live in. Coming off a year where he produced, then hit free agency –– which usually means the market views him as useful but imperfect — he could be in a sweet spot for a team trying to get better if they’re no longer shopping for luxury. 

The defensive versatility is more “break glass in case of emergency” than “start him everywhere,” and his overall value in 2025 wasn’t loud by WAR.

But if the Pirates move on from Cutch, the goal should be stacking enough real Major-League hitters that the nights Paul Skenes deals don’t end in a 2-1 loss. Andújar won’t fix everything — but he might be the kind of practical, annoying-to-pitch-to bat that helps Pittsburgh stop wasting its best window.