Pirates must follow the Cal Raleigh blueprint after latest Andrew McCutchen comments

Two years ago, frustration after a loss that eliminated his team from postseason contention, Cal Raleigh called out the Seattle Mariners' front office for not making the team better at the deadline.

“We’ve got to commit to winning," Raleigh said. "We have to commit to going and getting those players you see other teams going out (to get), going for it, getting big-time pitchers, getting big-time hitters. We have to do that to keep up. I think we’ve done a great job of growing some players here and within the farm system, but sometimes you have to go out and buy, and that’s just the name of the game."

At the time, manager Scott Servais told Raleigh to control his emotions. But while he apologized for for his strong comments about the team's commitment to winning, Raleigh refused to apologize for "wanting to win and wanting to bring a World Series to the city" of Seattle.

Now, fast forward to the present day. Servais has since been fired, the Mariners are back in the playoffs as the top team in the American League West, and they have a legitimate shot at winning the first World Series in franchise history – all because the Seattle management decided to listen to its leader in the clubhouse.

Now, if only the Pittsburgh Pirates' management would do the same.

Pirates management must listen to Andrew McCutchen the way Mariners listened to Cal Raleigh

In Pittsburgh, Andrew McCutchen is the undisputed leader of the clubhouse. He's a living franchise legend, and he's been around longer than Raleigh. He has returned to the Pirates on one-year contracts in each of the last three seasons, but the losing is getting tiresome – especially for a soon-to-be 39-year-old who still has aspirations of playing for a winning team before he retires.

To be clear, McCutchen has no intention of retiring next season. He wants to continue playing, but he also wants to play for a winning team. To accomplish both, he will most likely need to leave Pittsburgh – unless some major changes are made.

“There's a lot of stuff that can be improved and that can make this team better,” McCutchen recently told Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, placing emphasis on a lot. “But I also know if we just sit here back and — say we show up with the same team next year — we're going to get the same results. So that's just kind of the way that I look at it. Just everything, with everything being the same as it is right now, we're gonna get the same results.”

McCutchen's words may not have been quite as pointed as Raleigh's from two years ago, but the message is the same – the team needs reinforcements in order to compete, and the onus is on the front office to go out and get them.

“I'd just love to be a part of that winning,” McCutchen said (via Beazley). “Hopefully, [I’ll] get that opportunity to have that again. And I do feel like it's possible. If it wasn't possible, I don't think I'd be doing it. Maybe I doubt the Pirates would even bring me back. I think it's there.”

McCutchen is committed to the Pirates, and he's committed to winning. But right now, those two things are mutually exclusive, and Pittsburgh risks losing the face of their franchise unless the front office shows the same commitment to winning that he does.