Why the Pirates must trade McCutchen this winter

When Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington saw the return the Chicago White Sox received from the Washington Nationals for outfielder Adam Eaton, his heart must have sank.

For days, it appeared the Pirates would send franchise icon and All-Star outfielder Andrew McCutchen to the Nation's Capitol in exchange for a prospect package the would help accelerate a rebuild in the Steel City.

Those conversations were all for nought, however, as the Nationals went elsewhere, leaving the Pirates, Huntington, and McCutchen in an awkward situation.

Huntington has now expressed that the Pirates are no longer shopping McCutchen, but what the GM should do is swallow his pride, and do everything in his power to package away the former NL MVP before Opening Day 2017, and here's why:

Commit to one direction

In the current MLB landscape, there's no reason to be stuck in the middle. Either you believe you're a playoff caliber team or you're selling off assets to best position yourself for the future. Rebuilding is never fun, but there certainly are rewards to selling off veteran talent and stockpiling assets for the future.

The Cubs are coming off a World Series title. The Cardinals just added Dexter Fowler. The Pirates are the third-best team in a loaded division and they know the heartache that comes with being a wild-card team. With Huntington shopping McCutchen, he acknowledged that the team needs to build for the future and he should commit to that approach moving forward.

The Pirates won't be better this season without McCutchen, but they could make the team stronger in the future by dealing their most attractive trade chip.

Should Huntington need motivation, look at how the White Sox have revamped their minor-league system by trading Chris Sale and Eaton. The Pirates should start with McCutchen, and follow by shopping Josh Harrison, Francisco Cervelli, Jordy Mercer, Juan Nicasio, and Tony Watson, in turn building around a core of Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, and Jameson Taillon.

It's the Cubs division now, and it's time to commit to building for the future.

Supply and demand

Just like the reliever market, the cost to acquire players capable of playing multiple outfield positions has been extremely high this winter. Ian Desmond, who might be moved to first base, agreed to a five-year, $70-million deal; Fowler received $82.5 million over five years; Eaton landed the White Sox three top prospects, including the No. 1 pitching prospect in Lucas Giolito.

With Desmond, Fowler, and Eaton off the board, McCutchen represents the top center fielder available in either the trade, or free-agent market. With the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Toronto Blue Jays all in search of help, there should be a match to be found.

McCutchen is under control through the next two seasons, owed $14 million in 2017 with a $14.75-million team option for 2018. Those financial figures are comfortable for many teams to absorb and would create more of a possible return for the Pirates as they likely wouldn't have to eat any salary.

Even coming off a down season, McCutchen's stock is still high, and two years remaining of control adds to his appeal. Holding onto him for longer could work against the Pirates, as he could potentially further regress, or suffer an injury.

Damaged relationship

Hunington said that he plans to address the trade rumors with McCutchen prior to the Pirates' fan fest on Saturday, but the relationship may already be too fractured to come back from.

McCutchen has been quiet while the front office openly said he was being shopped, and while he's spent his entire career in Pittsburgh, he'll be entering his age 30 season having played in only eight playoff games - with two of those being wild-card game losses.

There have been some dark days during McCutchen's early tenure in Pittsburgh, and with the club showing a willingness to rebuild and with no long-term extension talks believed to be on the horizon, McCutchen would most likely prefer to move on to a franchise with ambitions to win now, rather than remain with a club that's going in a different direction.