Hurdle hints Pirates are shopping McCutchen

Andrew McCutchen could be playing out his final days with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Coming off their first losing season in the last four years, the Pirates appear poised to potentially enter a rebuilding phase, with McCutchen among one of the club's top trade chips.

McCutchen is owed $14 million in 2017 with a $14.75-million team option for 2018. With a much smaller operating budget than most big-league clubs, signing a then 32-year-old McCutchen to an extension after his current contract seems unlikely, meaning now may be the time to consider trading him.

"I'll take it one day at a time," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle told Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune. "I think any general manager that's in a market similar to the one we're in has to explore the possibility of (trading) players who have one or two years left on their contracts. You have to see what value is there to keep or to move.

"That's the way we're going to need to continue to operate. It's the hard part of what we get to do."

Selected with the 11th pick of the 2005 draft by the Pirates, McCutchen has spent his entire eight-year career in Pittsburgh. He's been an All-Star five times, and has finished in the top five in NL MVP voting in four out of the last five years, winning in 2013.

"Andrew is a special man. He's been a special player," Hurdle said. "That's the one thing that you continue to honor as you continue to plan. He's here until he's not here, in my mind."

While McCutchen has seen his name populate trade rumors more frequently this offseason, Hurdle acknowledged that he's never asked to be dealt.

"Andrew has been very black and white in the conversations I've had with him," Hurdle said. "He's told me, 'I'm under contract here, so I plan on playing here. However, I don't call all the shots, either.'"