PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen is one of the greatest ever players in Pittsburgh Pirates history, but one of his most defining moments with the team came off the field.
The Pirates traded McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants on Jan. 15, 2018, ending his first tenure with the franchise and was a move that stunned the fanbase.
McCutchen was with the Pirates for 12 years prior to that, when they selected him 11th overall in the first round of the 2005 MLB Draft, and played nine seasons in his first stint, 2009 to 2017.
The former Pirates star spoke about the trade recently on The 6-1-1 podcast, hosted by former Philadelphia Phillies All-Stars Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard.
McCutchen Describes Tough Feeling After Getting Traded
There isn't a better Pirates player in the 21st century than McCutchen, and his play was a direct result of the team winning once again, after two decades of losing.
McCutchen earned five straight All-Star nods, 2011-15, four consecutive Silver Slugger Awards, 2012-15, a Gold Glove Award in 2012, the Roberto Clemente Award in 2015 and the National League MVP in 2013.
He also helped the Pirates make the postseason in three straight seasons, 2013-15, and they were one win away from the NLCS in 2013.
McCutchen was in the final year of his contract, a six-year, $51.5 million contract extension he signed in 2012, with the Pirates exercising a $14.5 million club option before they traded him.
It was a shocking decision for McCutchen, who envisioned staying with the Pirates the rest of his career.
“I don’t think people sometimes realize how we’re human," McCutchen said. "We’re human beings at the end of the day, and when you create relationships with people and things, you come attached in a way to where, if you don’t have it, it’s emotional.
“I didn’t even realize how emotionally I was attached to the franchise in Pittsburgh until I was traded because I was under the mindset that, at least for me, at least this is the want that I had, I never wanted to leave.
"I was like, “This is a place where I feel comfortable. I had created some great relationships here, had good experiences, have won here, lost here, got to know a lot of people and then, boom, I’m traded.
"I cried like a baby for two days. I was literally upstairs. My wife is hugging me and consoling me. I’m doing one of those shoulders, it’s one of those cries, just ugly cry and I’m sitting there, like and I’m looking at her like, “I didn’t know I would get so emotional.”
"It affected me in a way, emotionally, to where I was like, “Man. I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” and I have to change this mindset of just where I wanted to be, but obviously, this is a business so I have to be able to give everything that I have to this franchise that I’m going to next, which was with the Giants."
How McCutchen Adjusted to Getting Traded
McCutchen was in a weird position after joining the Giants, as he had never played for another ball club and needed to get used to playing somewhere else.
He played 130 games for the Giants, before they traded him to the Yankees, then played for the Philadelphia Phillies (2019-21) and the Milwaukee Brewers (2022), before returning to the Pirates for his last stint (2023-25).
McCutchen learned what it's like for other players in MLB, changing teams and adjusting to new surroundings, and realized that as long as his love for baseball never died, he could play anywhere.
"So I remember going there, and it was different; it was different," McCutchen said. "It took me a little bit to really get comfortable. I wasn’t necessarily all the way comfortable that I was in Pittsburgh and I feel like that’s the one thing that guys have to understand, especially guys that play. It’s different, it’s hard…"
“But at the same time you realize, or at least I did, I realized that, as upset that I am and even at times I was frustrated, having to leave one franchise for another, something I didn’t ask for, I had to realize that I need to be able to give, if I want to succeed and continue to play this game and do it well, at the end of the day, I got to get my emotions in check and I got to be able to be ready to give everything that I have to the Giants now and it’s probably not going to feel the same and that was the thing that I needed to realize and what I did realize was, it’s not going to feel the same way that it did in Pittsburgh and that’s okay.
“I think, a lot of times, what we do as players is, we go from one place that we were and we go to the next and we try to make it feel exactly like the other place because there’s some comfortablity there. There’s comfort for yourself and it helps you to accept that, “You know what, it was okay that I was over there, at least I feel the same over here too,” and that’s not true. It’s never like that.
"Everywhere you go, you have different experiences and there’s a reason you have those experiences.
"I had to realize, look, I spent from the time that I was 18 till the time that I left there at 30. I’m going to feel a certain way about that franchise in many ways. So this one I’m probably going to feel a little different and that’s okay.
"Just go there and be myself as best as I can. Create relationships and do what I’ve always done: that’s just play the game the best that I can, have fun doing it, get to know my teammates, my family, just all of that and understanding, who knows how long you’re going to be there. Just need to do what I can to succeed and that’s what I tried to do as best as I could when I was there.
"I love the franchise and I had a good time there with the franchise. It was a good team to go to. It was about the best team I could’ve went to for me at that time. We obviously didn’t get to where we wanted to go, but I enjoyed my time there as a Giant, because I just never thought I’d play.”
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