Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
McCutchen’s contributions are coming out of left field
A speed ball ricocheted off Bryce Harper’s cheekbone and onto his wrist. Roman Quinn took a similar pitch on his left index finger, which stopped bleeding only when it was sealed with nine stitches.
Matt Joyce? He pulled a calf muscle.
Odubel Herrera? He ruined his own career in an alleged assault in Atlantic City and may never recover.
Mickey Moniak never should have been the No. 1 pick in any draft above a college summer league. Scott Kingery had the misfortune of contracting coronavirus and has been nearly a year trying to recover his hitting stroke.
Adam Haseley was allowed to disappear for personal reasons. Brad Miller is around, but occasionally needs to pull infield duty.
And then, finally, when all else was collapsing in one of the most disintegrating outfields in Phillies history, through all the illness and bruises and blood, there he was, comfortably, confidently beginning to stir.
Get over here, Andrew McCutchen. Who loves ya’? “I think he can be a very good player,” Joe Girardi was saying Wednesday, a few hours before a game against the Milwaukee Brewers. “I think he’s dangerous with the bat. I actually think he is moving better than he did last year.”
Of course McCutchen, who would double and score in the first inning Wednesday, can be a very good player. He was once an MVP. His left knee hasn’t been operated on in about two years. He’s 34, but he hasn’t logged much mileage since that 2019 injury. And the Phillies will pay him $23 million this year, including the $3 million season-end buyout he is certain to be given. He can be a good player. Can be. And if so, yeah, this would be the time.
Harper was out of the lineup for a third consecutive game Wednesday with the mysterious wrist trouble. Earlier in the day, Joyce flopped onto the IL. The others are so undependable that they would find good company in the bullpen. But a night earlier, McCutchen hit two home runs, including his second leadoff home
run in three games. And for the first time in more than a week, he was acceptable in left field, likely due to what he has termed “crazy” visual exercises he has been trying.
McCutchen entered the game Wednesday hitting .191, so a getout-the-vote All-Star Game push is out of the question. But unlike too many once-great players content to fluff their financial portfolios or ready themselves for electronic-media gigs, McCutchen shows up early, works, works some more and is willing to earn his way back to sturdy public perception.
“It feels good that all the work
I’ve been putting in is starting to translate to the field,” McCutchen said. “Now, I’ve got to keep that going.”
McCutchen has not been at his best since 2013, and in his twoplus seasons in Philadelphia has been equal parts unlucky and disappointing. He was hitting well in the leadoff spot in 2019 before shredding his knee on a dive back to first base. Last season was dumb, all 60 games of it, and McCutchen never fired and hit .253. And at the beginning of this season, he was so unproductive in the leadoff spot that Girardi had to give him occasional rest, nicely providing professional cover, unwilling to openly link it to performance.
Even last weekend, as if the Phillies weren’t lacking defensively in enough other places, McCutchen admitted to having difficulty tracking line drives in certain sunlight conditions.
It wasn’t looking good for AMcC.
But then, when his teammates needed nothing less, there he was, alive at the plate, alert in the field, and helpful to the Phils’ first twogame winning streak since the opening homestand of the season.
“The difference is just showing up every day,” McCutchen said.
“I’ve played long enough, and you know you want to start off good, to start off on the right foot. And sometimes when you don’t, you know you’ve got work to do. You always have work to do. And for me, I was like, ‘I know I am not where I want to be, but I know where I am going to be. I’ve just got to continue to keep working and the results will come.’
“So that’s what I am doing, resetting every single day. It was good to have the results that I had and take those positives into the next day.”
In his first at-bat Wednesday, McCutchen laced a double down the third base line, then scored on a Rhys Hoskins RBI.
“He grinds out at-bats,” the manager said. “He takes his walks. He adds power at that position. So I think he can be really good for us.”
Harper soon will be back. Dave Dombrowski will improve the centerfield position. Maybe Kingery resurfaces as a useful fourth outfielder.
Until then, at a time when the Phillies need it, there will be a former MVP with a chance.