San Francisco Giants: McCutchen Would Help, but Not in Center Field

The San Francisco Giants continue to be connected to just about every imaginable outfielder, and Andrew McCutchen is one of them.

The slowest baseball offseason in recent memory continues to drag on, and it doesn’t seem that any real action is imminent. Rumors are all we have as of now, and the rumor mill continues to churn out hope for a deal. That rumor mill also continues to connect the San Francisco Giants with Pittsburgh Pirates’ outfielder Andrew McCutchen, so since there isn’t anything substantial to discuss, let’s look at that possibility.

The Giants need to improve their outfield. They need to get more offensive production, and, particularly in center field, they need better defense. Offensively, McCutchen is a big upgrade from what the team received in any outfield spot in 2017. Despite that, the Giants can’t acquire McCutchen with the thought of putting him in center field at AT&T Park.

On the offensive side, McCutchen would be a welcome addition to a rather meager Giants’ lineup. He went through a career-worst season in 2016, setting lows in all three triple-slash categories (.256/.336/.430) and personal lows with a 105 wRC+, six stolen bases, and worsts with a 21.2 percent strikeout rate and 10.2 percent walk rate.

He bounced back nicely in 2017, hitting .279/.363/.486 (much closer to his career .291/.379/.487 line) with a 122 wRC+ and 11 stolen bases. His strikeout rate dropped to 17.8 percent, and the walk rate increased to 11.2 percent. After a slow start, McCutchen finished the year by hitting .308/.394/.528 with a 141 wRC+ in his last 104 games.

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His projections for 2018 look quite good as well. According to Steamer projections, McCutchen should hit .283/.376/.484 with a 126 wRC+, 23 home runs, and 29 doubles. If he comes close to those numbers, he would be a great addition to the middle of the Giants’ lineup.

Defensively, though, is where things start to get ugly. 2016 was McCutchen’s third consecutive year as an extremely poor defensive center fielder, and the worst of the trio yet. He was worth -28 defensive runs saved and a -23.2 UZR/150, which is sadly similar to Denard Span’s numbers from 2017 (-27 DRS, -8.7 UZR/150).

It got so bad that Pittsburgh resolved to move him to a corner outfield spot. They did so early in the 2017 season, moving left fielder Starling Marte to center field and putting McCutchen in right field. But when Marte was suspended for a PED in mid-April, McCutchen was shifted back to his natural center field position, where he remained for the balance of the season.

McCutchen’s defensive numbers in center field improved from 2016, but they were still quite bad. He was worth -16 defensive runs saved (third-worst among center fielders) and -6.2 UZR/150.

The sample-size from his time in right field is extremely small, only 115.2 innings, but the numbers aren’t bad, at two DRS and 1.4 UZR/150. If the Giants were to bring him in and stick him in either corner outfield spot, McCutchen probably has the range to cover the ground, though there would of course be a learning curve in the difficult right field.

That would have to be their mindset if McCutchen is brought in. They can’t continue to play with a terrible center fielder in the biggest center field in baseball, even though McCutchen would bring some much-needed pop to the lineup.

The team has made it clear that upgrading the defense in center field is of the utmost importance, and there are still plenty of avenues to travel to achieve that goal. Jarrod Dyson is still on the market (along with so many others), Billy Hamilton is still on the trade block (maybe?), and other options are there. Even Steven Duggar, whom the team (and Brian Sabean, in particular) is very high on, could be spring-boarded into a starting job much sooner than expected, even though that goes against the team’s recent philosophy. McCutchen shouldn’t be considered the center fielder of 2018.

And there’s still the thought of the future. McCutchen is 31 years old, and only signed through the 2018 season. The Giants have already traded away one of their higher-level prospects in Christian Arroyo, and would likely need to part ways with at least one more to get McCutchen. The team can’t sell off too much more of an already-beleaguered farm system for only one more season.

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There’s a lot to think about with this potential deal, and the Giants need to go about this in the right way. McCutchen will certainly help the 2018 team, but can they mitigate the damage it would cause beyond that enough to make it worth it?

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