Deadline: Giants trade Andrew McCutchen

The San Francisco Giants traded for Andrew McCutchen as they thought they could contend for the postseason in 2018.
The Giants mildly contended, but for the most part, hung around the .500 mark and nearing the deadline for making waiver trades, did what teams that aren't contenders should do- move players that they can't or won't be keeping for the next season.

The Giants traded Andrew McCutchen to the New York Yankees in return for two minor leaguers- shortstop Abi Avelino and pitcher Juan DePaula.
McCutchen hit .255 with 15 homers and 55 RBI with the Giants and despite numbers that show McCutchen to possibly be in decline, please remember that AT&T Park is definitely a pitcher's park so it would not surprise me to see McCutchen do well with the Yankees in a league that he would be new to playing.

The Giants aren't getting top prospects in return, but both players were in Baseball America's Top 30 in the Yankees system.
The 23 year old Avelino looked to be just another organizational soldier entering the 2018 season for his third stint (Avelino had spent parts of 2016 and 17 there) at AA Trenton before a career season that re-ignited prospect status for the Dominican native.
Avelino hit .337 with 10 homers (both career highs) with 15 steals in 49 games with the Thunder before a promotion to AAA Scranton, where he hit .252 with 5 homers along with 10 steals for the Yankees in 74 games.
The AAA numbers were more in line with his numbers over the course of his minor league career, although the power was increased as his previous high for homers in a season was six and he hit five in AAA alone.
The increase makes Avelino a bit more intriguing, but the sudden numbers leap under the circumstances give me some pause to consider Avelino a true prospect as of this writing.
Avelino was assigned to AAA Sacramento to finish the last few games of the season and I'm not sure if he will be included in the September roster expansion or not.

Whenever you are trading and receive a young Latino pitcher that is toiling in the low minors, one has to realize that you are buying a lottery ticket.
It's a long shot mainly because young pitchers from outside the U.S. often do not have the statistical base to consider them as prospects or not.
The data to help determine that status will eventually arrive, but it isn't always available to decide when you are making the deal.
The Giants acquired one of these young unknowns from Boston last year in Gregory Santos in a trade that sent Eduardo Nunez to the Red Sox and they are returning to that well with Juan DePaula in this deal with the Yankees.
The soon to be 21 year old DePaula has spent the last two seasons with the Yankees short-season affiliate in Staten Island and pitched well enough looking at the 2017 stats (5-5 2.90 and an opposing batting average of .191 in 11 starts) that one would think that he deserved a full season assignment to their Low A team in Charleston for 2018.
That did not arrive (Perhaps he was injured?) and he was 2-2 with an ERA under two in nine Staten Island starts.
The 6'3 165 pound DePaula was obtained by the Yankees from Seattle in 2016 in a trade for Ben Gamel, works in the low 90's and used the curve and change from reports.
In other words, don't bet on him, but there is some upside there if the ticket comes in.

Trades like this take a while to sift through, so the results are unknown for now, but the Giants should have been doing more of these deals to bolster a less than strong farm system.

I still have a look waiting at the Pirates trades at the deadline and the Browns roster shuffling as well before we resume the road trip series...

Andrew McCutchen

The final part of the Andrew McCutchen series talks about the loss of the player to the fan base of the Pirates and just how it's yet another hit to a team that seems to be settled in as the third franchise in a three franchise city with fans that are possibly leaving not long after returning...

Andrew McCutchen wasn't just a good player for the Pirates, he was an ambassador for the team in a city that was looking for a representative.
The Steelers had theirs in the Rooneys, Mike Tomlin, Ben Rothlisberger etc and the Penguins had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and their stars, but where was the face of the Pirates?
For the most part, it was either the deceased Roberto Clemente, Manny Sanguillen sitting out in right field, Steve Blass telling stories in the booth or the beautiful ballpark.
Years of bad baseball had led to even average players with career seasons being pushed as Pirate stars and the awful track record with drafting and trades by general managers Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield had left the organization and minor league system filled with less than sterling talent.
Most years in the draft even when the Pirates picked in the top five (remember Bryan Bullington and Daniel Moskos?) the Pirates found a way to draft a low ceiling college player that wouldn't cost as much as a more talented player at the same draft position.

Only once, did Dave Littlefield break with this philosophy with McCutchen in 2005's in tabbing Cutch as a high school prospect out of Florida.
When you look at the 2005 draft, I can see that knowing how Littlefield liked to draft, he had to feel like he was taking a real risk on McCutchen as the only college position player that panned out following the Pirates pick at 11 (Which for the Pirates at the time was a pretty low pick) was Jacoby Ellsbury at 23 to Boston.
The high school choices were not plentiful either as only Jay Bruce, who the Reds took out of a Texas high school with the next pick had anything more than an average big league career, so give Littlefield credit for arguably the only great thing that he managed to do in his entire Pirate career.

Pirates fans could tell from the day he was drafted that McCutchen was different than the usual Littlefield pick and were excited to hear about him as he moved through the minor system.
That's how Cutch became one of the TRS favorites.
Cutch was drafted in 2005 right around the first full year that I started going to minor league games all the times and autographing, so I was excited to hear about this Pirate prospect that was going to be appearing in Hagerstown soon.
In 2006, my nephew Jeff was a Sun's batboy and he worked for the visiting team, so he talked to Cutch throughout the series and I have a few pictures of Jeff getting Cutch to sign a ball after a game for me.
Seems so long ago and I guess 12 years can be both long and short, but Cutch was a good signer and a nice guy even then, a bit quiet, but nice.
The picture above is a picture that Ryan took with a camera of the day (take note of the time stamp) during one day of the series and we had an 8 x 10 made the next morning to have Andrew sign that night.
That process alone shows the difference in twelve years!!

McCutchen skipped the then Pirates High A affiliate in Lynchburg (missing Frederick, the easiest place to graph on the circuit then) and would spend his 20-year-old season with AA Altoona, which is an awful challenging assignment for a high schooler.
Andrew was solid enough,but unspectacular (.258/10/48 in 118 games), but considering his age, a fair season and in two years, he was in Pittsburgh for good at 22.

Andrew McCutchen was the player that helped Pirate fans fall back in love with a franchise that had decayed away with a management that seemed not to care.
I compare those Pirates in some ways to the Browns (although the Browns have a much larger and more rabid base of supporters) in that there are/were people that still care, but were/are just so beaten down by losing, dumb moves, cheapness etc that they've become numb to it all.
Cutch was the start of those people and he was the start of me getting into this crazy hobby and fun business of caring and learning more about minor league prospects.
Andrew McCutchen also backed up on the field and for a small market team, he was what they so often need-a bankable superstar that gives that teams fans someone exciting to watch win or lose to go and see live or on television.

Now, he's gone and he would have likely been gone after the season anyway, but what the Pirates have said is that money is a little more important than winning.
What are the chances the Pirates make a big run this season with McCutchen and Gerrit Cole?
Less than average when you consider that their division is a strong one, but you could make a case that with a signing or two to a one or two year deal, that a playoff contending team wouldn't be out of the question.
Instead, the Pirates moved those players and didn't get one blue-chip prospect in return-not one.
Interesting ones?
Yes, I like Joe Musgrove and Kyle Crick could be a future closer, but none are top of the line, blue chippers and the Pirates chose to punt the season rather than even try.
What does these types of decisions always bring to my mind?
An obscure 80's teen movie called Three O'Clock High.
The premise is that this huge street fighter (Buddy Revell) is going to fight this average guy (Jerry Something) at three o'clock and the film follows the school day leading up to the fight with the hi-jinks that entail of how the fight is tried to be avoided etc before they fight.
This scene below features Buddy Revell asking Jerry how it feels after he pays him off not to fight him.-That's what I feel about the Pirates and especially so after losing Andrew McCutchen...
They didn't even try...

Andrew McCutchen-What the Giants are getting

Part two of our series on the Andrew McCutchen trade takes a perusal at how the swap affects the San Francisco Giants and what they expect to receive from the outfielder from the (expected) one year that he spends in the Bay Area.

The Giants are a veteran team that was expected to contend last season and instead responded with the worst record in the National League, but considering their situation with veteran contracts and a less than strong farm system, the Giants are going all in for a two (perhaps three ) year push before these players are all past their prime and the revamp will be a mandatory one, whether the Orange and Black likes it or not.
San Francisco hopes to use these few years to continue to contend, draw fans and be able to rebuild that flagging minor league system in order to better prepare for the next stage in Giants baseball.

Andrew McCutchen bounced back a little in 2017 from a down 2016 with a solid line of .279/28/88 and his OPS rose 83 points to .849, so McCutchen doesn't seem to be on the downside, although those numbers aren't quite what prime McCutchen's were, they are still more than solid.
McCutchen also won't be asked to play centerfield in San Francisco as he was in Pittsburgh.
McCutchen's range defensively has dropped through the years and that would have been a huge factor in San Francisco with the largest centerfield to cover in the game.
Pittsburgh was able to slide by with McCutchen in center for two reasons-first PNC Park is much wider in the power alley to left center, therefore, making PNC Park a rare stadium in that left field is more important as far as range goes to have a strong flychaser in left defensively than center.
The Giants suffered badly defensively in center over the last two seasons with Denard Span attempting to cover ground in "Triple's Alley" and the concern was that McCutchen as well would have similar struggles.
The good news there is that the Giants have no such plans to even try as McCutchen will play right field at AT&T Park with Hunter Pence moving over to left.
McCutchen did play 13 games in right last year with the Pirates, but that is his only major league experience at the position.

At the plate, McCutchen did cut his strikeouts last season by 27 from 2016 and seemed to be more patient at the plate as well.
Cutch isn't the base stealing threat that he once was as his steal stats has decreased from 27 in 2013 to 11 last season, but he's not a clogger yet on the bases either, so I don't have any worries there.
The Pirates also sent along 2.5 million in the deal to help pay for McCutchen's salary for the season, so look for the Giants to sign or trade for a reasonably priced  and more than likely defensively oriented centerfielder to help make up for some of the deficiencies of McCutchen and Pence in the spacious San Francisco grounds sometime soon before spring training opens...

The power challenged Giants had to make something happen and even with the additions of Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria, the arrivals might not be enough to make a bad team good.
However, it is nice to see a team take the bull by the horns and try to do something, whether it works or not.
Give the Giants credit for the effort.
Now, let's see if the team can do the hardest thing to do in sports-contend while rebuilding on the fly.
Good luck!

I'll have the PPM and the boxing challenge opener soon, so the final part of this series might not be finished until next week, but I hope you'll enjoy it...

Busy Buccos Cutting Costs-Part Two

The Andrew McCutchen trade will be covered in three posts as it involves two of the teams that we cover here.
It's that important.
In part one, we'll talk about what the Pirates received in return and how it affects Pittsburgh for 2018.
In part two, we'll look at things from the Giants perspective as they attempt to bounce back from an awful 2017 and make a short-term move before their core ages.
And we'll finish with part three, where I'll write about Andrew McCutchen, the player, who grew up as a prospect into a star right alongside this blog.
I hope that the reader will find it interesting.

In this post, the trade that sent the longtime face of the Pirate franchise in Andrew McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants clearly ends any hope of Pirate fans of any sort of contention for the 2018 season, despite what the team was attempting to sell after the Gerrit Cole trade with the Astros.
Trading McCutchen, who will be a free agent at the end of the season and will be 32 for his next contract, was thought to be a given before the end of 2018, if the Pirates were not in contention, but trading him now looks to be a salary dump of a player that had given much of himself to the franchise and the community.

The featured player in the trade is yet again another power-armed reliever in righthanded Kyle Crick

Now, this is where I catch a break because there might not be another pitcher that doesn't pitch in the organization's that host teams on the local circuit (Nationals and Orioles) that I have seen pitch more times than Kyle Crick in the minors in addition to his big league season last year with the Giants.
The 2011 "Sandwich" pick has always had one of the better arms in the minors with an A+ fastball and combined with a live slider, Crick's appearance in Hagerstown as an Augusta Greenjacket in 2012 showed an impressive toolbox that gave me hope that the Giants had another future star in their rotation.
After an impressive 2013 at High A San Jose, Crick figured to be tested at the AA level in Richmond, which is where prospects often meet real adversity for the first time.
Little did Crick or the Giants know that Crick would not just meet adversity in Richmond, he would buy property and make a home there as Crick would spend three full seasons with the Eastern League franchise.
Crick walked a lot of batters (a lot), moved from the rotation to the bullpen back to the rotation, his numbers were worse in season three than they were in season one and both Giants fans and Eastern League followers were wondering if Crick was ever going to be able to harness his plus stuff and return to those prospect lists that he was slipping off.

And then something happened.
Rather send Crick to Richmond for yet another year, San Francisco threw up their hands, tried Crick at AAA Sacramento as a reliever and the light clicked on.
Crick put up an ERA under three in 29 innings as the RiverCats setup man before becoming their closer and struck out 39 in 29 innings, but the most important number?
Only 13 walks.
With Crick's arm, there is no doubt that he can be an elite level closer in the league with even average command and the potential seemed to be coming into form and with the Giants suffering through an awful season, it didn't hurt any to bring Crick up to AT&T Park when Mark Melancon was injured, although he wasn't used as the closer of course.
Crick's numbers were solid with the Giants as well in a pitchers park, which should bode well in Pittsburgh as well as Crick's ERA was barely over three, struck out 28 and walked 17 in 32 innings, which I thought was pretty impressive.
I was figuring on (assuming that Crick continued his command improvement) seeing Crick have the first chance on being the eventual closing replacement when Mark Melancon's contract expires after 2020 (Melancon does have a player option after next year), that's how impressed (and surprised) I was with Crick's 2017 season.
Here's the problem- how many times have you seen a player have command issues take a leap forward for a season and then regress?
It happens more than you think and until Crick can repeat (and maybe even another season after that)  can you truly feel comfortable in thinking that things are truly under "Control".

As for the other player in the trade, the Giants used their first pick in the 2016 draft (second round) on Vanderbilt outfielder Bryan Reynolds and many at the time thought that Reynolds was a steal at the point in the draft.
Reynolds turns 23 next week, so for a college outfielder, Reynolds is not excessively old after spending last year at High A San Jose where he hit .312 with 10 homers and 63 RBI.
Reynolds line does send some mixed signals as far as speed and power.
Ten homers in the California league is nothing special, but nine triples does indicate gap power.
Five steals doesn't indicate plus speed, but nine triples is a pretty impressive number, so there are some stats to think about.
Reynolds also switch-hits which is always a plus, but for a player that doesn't have even average power, his 106 strikeouts (and only 37 walks) is a warning sign to me.
I think Reynolds is a pretty similar prospect to Steven Duggar in the Giants system and with Duggar being one step ahead (expected to start at AAA Sacramento) in the system, the Giants likely looked at Reynolds as being the more expendable of the two, especially with Andrew McCutchen being more than likely a one year rental in the outfield.
I think there are similarities between Reynolds and Jason Martin (acquired from the Astros) with Reynolds being the slightly safer bet and Martin having the slightly higher upside due to the better power potential.
Reynolds should join Martin in the outfield at AA Altoona to start the 2018 season.

I can understand Pirates fans being disappointed with the return.
Perhaps had they waited and McCutchen hit well, they could have gotten a better return at the trade deadline, but that carries the risk of a bad year or even an injury and getting a lesser return or even no return at all, so I can understand taking the safe route now, even if it is the less than glamorous return.
The problem for Pirates fans is that it comes so soon after the trade of Gerrit Cole where the team said that they were not punting the 2018 season- there is no way that one could take such a statement with any type of seriousness now.
It's tough to take the Nutting ownership seriously now when they say that they want to build through youth and then when the time is right they will spend the money to take a shot to win a title.
When the time was right to spend and the window was open, they refused to do so- the returns are in and Bob Nutting just is content to make his dollars from baseball.
Winning is secondary.

Unless something breaks, our next post will look at the trade through the prism from the Giants perspective and how the trade impacts their lineup for the season...