Pirates fans are wondering how Andrew McCutchen has inside MLB knowledge

Baseballs are seeing increased drag during flight this season, causing them to travel shorter distances than usual off the bat. Has Major League Baseball entered another dead-ball era in 2025?

The original dead-ball era, of course, refers to the time period from 1900 to 1920, where scoring was down and homers in the Major Leagues were few and far between. In an admittedly smaller sample size, a similar pattern is emerging this year, as scoring is down from 4.39 to 4.30 runs per game compared to last season – and it's not hard to see why.

On Saturday, Ben Yoel posted a video on X of New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto hitting a fly ball to deep right field off of Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Edwin Uceta. Fans at Citi Field jumped out of their seats, seemingly convinced that the ball was gone, only to watch Brandon Lowe snag the ball at the warning track with relative ease before it reached the outfield wall. Even Soto himself seemed to think that he had hit a home run and was visibly disappointed at the result.

Yoel posted the video and wrote, "You can't convince me MLB isn't using dead balls."

Evidently, Yoel had not read Eno Sarris and Evan Drellich's reports in The Athletic (subscription required) the day before, which reviewed MLB's available data and found that there has, in fact, been more drag on baseballs in 2025 than in any other season in which MLB has tracked this data. As a result, the balls are traveling an average of four feet shorter than usual off the bat.

Pirates' Andrew McCutchen gets inside scoop on MLB's 'dead' baseballs in 2025

Pittsburgh Pirates DH Andrew McCutchen apparently did some investigative reporting of his own and reached the same conclusion that Sarris and Drellich did. He shared Yoel's original post on X and supplemented it with his own findings.

"I was told by a rep for MLB that the balls are indeed different this year," McCutchen wrote. "They stated 'higher seams' which produces more drag on baseball, causing baseballs to not travel as far as they should. When asked why, I was told 'every baseball is hand sewn so no ball is the same.'"

In a statement provided to Sarris and Drellich, MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin said that "there has been no change to the manufacturing, storage or handling of baseballs this year, and all baseballs remain within specifications."

So, if the root cause has been identified, is there anything that can be done to change it? According to McCutchen (and his league sources), not this year.

"When I asked if there is something that can be done about correcting the current performance of this years baseball, I was told there was 'nothing' that can be done about it this season," McCutchen wrote. "BUT, they are 'working hard on getting to the bottom of why the seams are higher.' So, yea you’re not wrong Ben."

How exactly McCutchen procured this inside information is unclear, but at least it's consistent with the findings of Sarris and Drellich. And, conveniently, it gives the Pirates a reason to blame for the fact that they have hit the fewest runs (232) in Major League Baseball this year.

More Pirates content from Rum Bunter