McCutchen brings needed hope, energy to clubhouse
No one can say that the Giants acquired the same Andrew McCutchen who won the National League MVP award in 2013.
But listening to the Giants brass — grand poobah Brian Sabean, general manager Bobby Evans and manager Bruce Bochy — speak on McCutchen’s introductory conference call Tuesday, you couldn’t ignore the excitement in their voices. I hadn’t heard them like that in a year. It was a bit jarring. It almost seemed disproportionate. I know he’s good, but he’s not that good, guys.
Then it hit me: Any team would be happy to add a player like McCutchen, particularly one that lost 98 games last year and desperately needed an outfielder. But for the Giants, McCutchen represents something larger than a projected 80 runs and 20-plus homers: He represents hope.
Going into the 2018 offseason, the Giants organization was fraying. The team’s season from hell in 2017 was highlighted by deteriorating play on the field, tensions in the locker room and a front office and manager who knew that if something wasn’t done to turn around the Giants fortunes in 2018, they probably wouldn’t be around to fix things in 2019.
And when the team struck out on trading for Giancarlo Staton and signing Shohei Ohtani earlier this offseason, spirits dipped a bit lower.
The acquisition of Evan Longoria was a pick-me-up — a little hit of positivity before Christmas — but he alone wasn’t enough to change San Francisco’s 2018 fortunes. He was an improvement, no doubt, but the Giants needed more than that.
Pairing McCutchen with Longoria is good for six, perhaps seven additional wins in 2018, if you’re looking strictly at production. But adding a clubhouse presence like McCutchen could result in more than just a few more victories.
The Giants new right fielder — his position change was announced Tuesday — has a reputation for being one of the best people in baseball. It’s no coincidence that the Pirates had their best season in 16 years when McCutchen entered his prime in 2013.
The Giants locker room didn’t totally fracture last year, but it did show some cracks. The leadership in that room is strong, but it’s generally quiet leadership, and it was never tested like it was last year. Buster Posey isn’t a politician. We all know Madison Bumgarner isn’t either. Those are guys who try to lead by example.
Nothing wrong with that at all, but in tough situations, sometimes you need a rah-rah guy, and Hunter Pence, who is usually that guy for the Giants, wasn’t able to fill that role singlehandedly last year — injuries zapped too much of his mojo over the last few years, it seemed. Eventually, he too succumbed the doldrums of a season that was going nowhere.
The Giants are a team full of gamers — they live and die on every game. They’re all-in, all the time. As such, they’ve ridden the highs of winning to three titles — the Giants were rarely, if ever, the “better” team during those playoff rounds, but they knew how to ride the waves. But when you lose as much as the Giants did last year, and you don’t have much practice at that sort of thing, the natural negative momentum of failure grows at an exponential rate.
The bad energy around the Giants was undeniable last season, and if it carried over into the 2018 season, it would have taken a lot of people down with it.
Now pride could have created some positive momentum ahead of the 2018 season, but what the Giants really needed was new blood and someone who could re-set the culture of the team.
McCutchen’s production gives the Giants a plausible shot at the playoffs — the playoffs were a pipe dream for the Giants on Sunday — and I think his leadership and fit with this Giants team could be that trademark little extra something that gets the Giants over the top this year.
The Giants aren’t going to win the National League West this year — the Dodgers are just too good to believe that’s possible — but with their two big offseason additions, they now have a team that’s good enough to hang around .500 for the majority of the season, and that makes them a playoff contender in this era of baseball.
And with McCutchen in this Giants clubhouse, I can’t help thinking the Giants, a year after being downright depressing to be around, are going to enter the 2018 season with the belief that they can make some noise in 2018.
If that alone isn’t worth giving up a couple of prospects, I don’t know what is.