Do the Bucs need a DH? One just got released onto the market, as former Pittsburgh Pirates star Andrew McCutchen was just designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers.
The Bucs have two big, glaring holes in their hitting lineup. First one is at catcher, where Endy Rodriguez is hitting .319, but only with 19 at-bats, and the usual catcher, Henry Davis, is hitting an absolutely abysmal .139 on the year. The second is at DH, where offseason acquisition Marcel Ozuna has also been bad. He’s hitting just .186 on the year with 5 dingers and 21 RBIs.
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However, don’t get too excited about the prospect of jumping on Cutch now that he’s available. He wasn’t exactly lighting it up with the Rangers. He was averaging just .192 for Texas with a single homer and 5 RBIs. He hit .239 with 13 homers last year, so this is a far cry even from that. And honestly, it may be even worse than that, as Ozuna started off the season god awful but has upped his average a bit and hit a few dingers, while Cutch started off the year hot, but has fallen off of a cliff since.
Cutch will be 40 years old in October, so it’s not much of a surprise to see him struggle. Oftentimes, when guys lose it, it all happens at once, and that may be what we’re looking at with Cutch. It’s not an upgrade from Ozuna at this point in time, and Cutch’s Pirates swan song was last year. It wouldn’t be a good signing, and I would be shocked to see him back in Pittsburgh. Being that this is sports, anything is possible, but I wouldn’t be holding my breath for a suprise Cutch return, even with how bad Ozuna has been. Good luck, Cutch. But maybe it’s just that time to ride off into the baseball sunset.
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