Pittsburgh Pirates: Seven Milestones Andrew McCutchen Could Achieve In 2024

300 home runs

McCutchen likely would have hit his 300th home run last season had it not been for both an elbow injury that significantly bogged his power down in the second half of last season, and partially tearing his achilles in the first week of September. Cutch finished the 2023 season with 299 home runs. So long as McCutchen stays relatively healthy next season, he will reach this milestone, maybe even after the first week of the season.

Once McCutchen hits his 300th home run, he will join some pretty elite company. Only 14 players have ever hit 300+ homers while playing at least half of their games in center field. At least eight of those players will likely, or are currently enshrined in Cooperstown. Trout was the most recent center fielder to hit their 300th home run, which came in 2020.

+50 bWAR

Baseball Reference’s calculation for wins above replacement currently has McCutchen at +48.6. He only needs +1.4 more bWAR to reach the +50 milestone. That’s right around how much McCutchen has averaged over the last three seasons. While +50 bWAR might seem kind of arbitrary, it is where you start to see the difference between the players who make the Hall of Fame and the ones who don’t make the Hall of Fame. Only 26 players have played over half of their games in center field with a bWAR of +50 or greater, and about half of them are in the Hall of Fame. Others like Mike Trout, Carlos Beltran, and Andruw Jones will likely eventually reach Cooperstown. Trout is once again the most recent CF to hit 50+ bWAR, which he achieved in 2017.

1100 runs batted in

This is another milestone that Cutch likely would have achieved had he stayed healthy, both in the second half of last year and in September. McCutchen currently has 1045 career runs batted in. He is only 55 away from reaching 1100. If McCutchen hits anything like he did in 2023 with runners in scoring position, he’ll reach this milestone with relative ease. He batted .276/.422/.496 in 116 plate appearances with RISP. He walked more frequently than he struck out. Plus, if Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, and Rowdy Tellez return fully healthy in 2024, Cutch will get plenty of opportunities to drive in 55 or more runners.

50 triples

This isn’t one many think about, but McCutchen needs just one more triple to reach 50 in his career. McCutchen hasn’t hit a triple in the last two years, and hitting one does involve a decent amount of luck. He has to hit it in just the right part of the ballpark, hope the fielders don’t play it right but not wrong enough for it to be counted as an error, and/or hope that something completley out of anyone's control happens such as a weird hop or bounce off a wall. McCutchen was in the 77th percentile of sprint speed last season, making him the second fastest age-35+ MLB player last year. How much speed he’ll have after his Achilles tear remains to be seen, but he had the speed last year to leg one out.

3500 total bases

McCutchen ended the 2023 season with 3454 total bases. He only needs 46 more to reach 3500. Even in the shortened 2020 season, Cutch still racked up 94 total bases. This seems like one he could even reach within the first month of the season if he gets off to a good start. Only 18 center fielders have ever reached this milestone. The most recent center fielder to reach 3500+ total bases is Torii Hunter, who got his 3500th total base in 2013.

10th most hits in Pirates history

McCutchen reached 2000 hits this past season, and has 1563 hits as a member of the Pirates. He needs less than 100 to break into the franchise’s top ten list. As of right now, he is only surpassed by Fred Clarke (1638) and Tommy Leach (1603). Cutch currently has 1563 hits as a member of the Pirates, meaning he only needs 75 more. Even if he were to only bat .190 in 400 at-bats, he'd surpass Clarke by one hit.

5th most walks in Pirates history

McCutchen has always been great at drawing walks. His career walk rate is 12.2%, and last year, he hit a career-high with a 15.9% walk rate (unless you count the 16.4% rate he posted in 2019 where he only appeared in 59 games). 760 of his 1058 career free passes have come as a Pirate. He is only 35 more away from surpassing Ralph Kiner as 5th on the all-time Pirates list. Cutch drew his 35th walk by the end of the first week of June last year, so this seems like one he should reach.