Andrew McCutchen Extension Terms Closely Resemble Jay Bruce's Reds Contract

Rob Biertempfel reports on the terms of Andrew McCutchen’s new six-year extension with the Pirates.

#Pirates pay McCutchen 2012: $500k, 13:$4.5m, 14: $7.25m, 15: $10m, 16: $13m, 17: $14m. Option$14.75 or $1m buyout

Also included in the contract will be a $1.25 million signing bonus, which means that McCutchen’s 2012 salary will effectively be $1.75 million.

The model here plainly is Jay Bruce’s six-year, $51 million extension with the Cincinnati Reds. Bruce got $2.75 million in the first year, then salaries of $5 million, $7.5 million, $10 million, $12 million and $12.5 million, with a club option of $13 million or a $1 million buyout.

Bruce, incidentally, was selected one pick after McCutchen in the 2005 MLB Draft, so it will be interesting to see their careers continue to be intertwined as they go through their prime years as rivals in the NL Central.

For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.

Andrew McCutchen Extension Ensures That McCutchen Will Spend Peak With Pirates

Andrew McCutchen, Pirates Reportedly Agree To Terms On Long-Term Contract

Michael Sanserino reports that Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates have agreed to terms on a long-term deal that will keep the Bucs’ brightest star under team control through 2018.

Source: #Pirates and Andrew McCutchen agree on a 6-year contract worth $51.5 m with a club option for $14.75 m.

McCutchen had been scheduled to become a free agent after the 2015 season, but now that date has been pushed back three years, counting the team option. The deal is roughly similar to long-term deals signed by the Reds’ Jay Bruce and the Diamondbacks’ Justin Upton, two young outfielders who are/were roughly comparable to McCutchen in terms of value and free agency status. Both those deals were for around $51 million.

This move will come as a great relief to Pirates fans. McCutchen is already a star, and at 25, his best years may well be ahead of him, given his athleticism, well-rounded skill set, and good health. At the very least, this move pushes back McCutchen’s likely departure from the Pirates by a couple seasons, and those seasons will probably be when McCutchen is in his late 20s and at the peak of his powers. This move also increases the likelihood that the Pirates will have McCutchen as a young veteran on a team that features top young talents like Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon, assuming those players continue to develop.

For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.

Andrew McCutchen, Pirates 'About $10 Million' Apart On Extension, According To Report

Rob Biertempfel has details on possible extension talks between the Pirates and star outfielder Andrew McCutchen.

A team source Sunday told the Tribune-Review that the Pirates do not consider the initial gap of about $10 million between the sides to be insurmountable.

McCutchen, the No. 11 pick in the 2005 draft, turned down offers before the 2010 and ’11 seasons. No substantial talks have been held since last year, when the sides were far apart on financial terms.

McCutchen’s camp likes the $51 million deals given to Arizona’s Justin Upton and Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce, two other standout outfielders from the 2005 draft class. The Pirates prefer a package closer to $40 million.

If the gap between McCutchen and the Pirates is only around $10 million, it sounds like there’s hope that the Bucs can eventually get something done. The key here is that McCutchen is currently due to become a free agent after the 2015 season. By signing McCutchen to an extension, the Pirates would want to ensure that they’ll be able to keep him around longer than that. McCutchen’s well-rounded skill set and good health make him a good bet to be productive well into his 30s, so signing him to a long-term deal would be a good idea, if the financial terms are reasonable.

For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.

Andrew McCutchen Extension Not Imminent

Dejan Kovacevic of the Tribune-Review reports that, a month after the news initially broke that outfielder Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates were discussing a long-term contract extension, nothing is imminent. The Bucs want to guarantee that McCutchen will stick around at least a year beyond 2015, after which he would have been eligible for free agency, and it appears McCutchen is open to that, but the two sides don’t agree on how much he should be paid.

The Pirates and McCutchen had discussed a contract that would buy out a year or two of McCutchen’s free-agency time, either through guaranteed money or a club option. That appears to still be on the table for both sides, but money is the separator.

McCutchen is quickly emerging as a superstar – not only is he the Pirates’ best hitter, but his defense has taken a step forward this year as well. He’s currently sixth among position players throughout baseball in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), a statistic that calculates a player’s value both offensively and defensively. His combination of plate discipline, power, athleticism and defensive value is likely to make him very, very valuable in his peak, so the Pirates would be wise to lock him up to an extension soon, if at all possible.

Andrew McCutchen Extension: Pirates Reportedly Insisting On Extra Years

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated tweets that the Pirates want the potential Andrew McCutchen extension they’re discussing to be “at least” five years.

This is significant mostly because Andrew McCutchen is slated to become a free agent after 2015. So if the Pirates signed him to a four-year deal, as an earlier report stated, that would cover the 2012 through 2015 seasons, meaning McCutchen would become a free agent at exactly the same time. That might actually make McCutchen less likely to stick with the Pirates any longer than he had to, because he would already be set for life and would know that he could just seek a huge payday elsewhere if he waited until after 2015.

So there could be two solutions for the Pirates. One would be to take him year to year. The advantage of doing so would be that McCutchen wouldn’t get his big contract, meaning that he would have at least some incentive to sign an extension with the Pirates at a later date. Or, better, the Bucs could pursue the extension talks but insist on keeping McCutchen for at least another year as a condition of doing so. That appears to be what they’re doing, and good for them.

Andrew McCutchen, Pirates Talking About New Contract

Dejan Kovacevic of the Post-Gazette reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates are in contract talks with star center fielder Andrew McCutchen. This is less significant news than it might appear to be, since the deal that the two sides are negotiating would not buy out any of McCutchen's free agency years.

The most likely type of extension would be one that carries McCutchen through next season, plus his three arbitration years. He still would be eligible for free agency in 2016, based on his current status.