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There’s no denying the impact, love, and legacy that Andrew McCutchen has left on the Pirates and the region. 

The 2013 NL MVP brought winning baseball back to Pittsburgh and may one day have his No. 22 retired at PNC Park. But is it the last time McCutchen has donned the number on the diamond in the Steel City?

McCutchen remains a free agent after concluding the third season of his second stint in Pittsburgh. During the ever-popular “Ask Pirates Management” segment of PiratesFest on Saturday, General Manager Ben Cherington was noncommittal on whether the Pirates will re-sign the former face of the franchise. 

“Andrew has meant a ton to the team,” Cherington said, per Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. “He’s had an incredible run, in two different times with the Pirates. Certainly, his legacy is secure, and our desire — everybody at the Pirates would desire — to have him maintain a really good relationship with Andrew well into the future.”

Cherington may be referring to a connection with Pirates alumni and returning to team events in the future. 

The more Cherington spoke on the topic, the more it sounded like the Pirates are moving on. 

“Then we come back to our team. What is the job? The job is to build a team that gives us the best chance to be winning games when you’re in the ballpark in June and July, and that’s where I see the passion come out,” Cherington said. 

Following a season with PR nightmares, spotty attendance, and frequent “Sell The Team” chants, the Pirates were the most active they’ve ever been in the Cherington era in adding to the roster. 

Pittsburgh signed first baseman/DH Ryan O’Hearn to the first multi-year deal since Ivan Nova, traded for 31 home-run hitting second baseman Brandon Lowe, and acquired outfielders Jake Mangum and Jhostynxon Garcia. 

Cherington said their approach has been based on winning more games this year than previous seasons and “that’s going to continue to guide our decisions.”

The Pirates, at least yet, haven’t deemed that McCutchen best puts them in position for this to come to fruition. This could be because they are chasing a bigger bat to acquire, or don’t want McCutchen back and haven’t wanted to tell him.

Cherington hasn’t been clear, but concluded: “So much respect for Andrew. That relationship is really important to us, and we’ll continue to communicate with him, directly, as the team comes together. We have more work to do.”

McCutchen was not in attendance at the annual fan fest held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. 

Cherington didn’t close the door on a reunion with McCutchen, but the more time that passes makes it more and more unlikely as we approach spring training.

Frustrated by the process, McCutchen took to Twitter to express his feelings about being absent from PiratesFest. 

He pointed to how the St. Louis Cardinals had a farewell season with Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, the Dodgers with Clayton Kershaw, and the Tigers with Miguel Cabrera as examples of franchise icons who had one final run and were either known, or strongly implied, that it was their final year.

“I wonder, did the Cards do this Wainwright/Pujols/Yadi? Dodgers to Kershaw? Tigers to Miggy? The list goes on and on,” McCutchen said. “If this is my last year, it would have been nice to meet the fans one last time as a player. Talk to them about my appreciation for them over the years. Shake that little kid’s hand or hug the fan that’s been a fan since Clemente.”

In 135 games, McCutchen hit .239 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs for the Pirates in 2025. A 17-year MLB vet who has spent 12 in the black and gold, McCutchen is a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger winner.

McCutchen thinks the fan base deserves transparency. He believes it’s “bigger than baseball” with the relationships McCutchen has built with loyal Pittsburgh sports fans.

“You see, this is bigger than baseball!” McCutchen said. “Bigger than looking at a 40-man roster and cherry picking numbers that fit your agenda or prove why your opinion matters. The fans deserved at the very least to get that opportunity.”

McCutchen ranked second on the team in hits (114) and third in home runs and RBIs. He still lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Maria, who welcomed the couple’s fifth child this month. 

“(I don’t know) what the future holds for me at the present moment, but what I do know is (that) though I am 39, on the backend of my career, I still work everyday to be better than I was the year before,” McCutchen said. “If there wasn’t a burning desire to continue this journey, I would be home surrounded by my family, in which no one would judge or be surprised.”

While the Pirates seemingly remain unsure if McCutchen has a role on the team in 2026, McCutchen isn’t ready to hang up the bats and cleats just yet. 

“But not yet,” McCutchen said. “There’s more work to do, and I’m not done, no matter what label you try to stamp on. Rip the jersey off of me. You don’t get to write my future, God does.”

There may be a role for McCutchen, but much more minimal than as the starting DH over the past three years. O’Hearn will likely DH, but McCutchen could be a valuable asset to start against lefties.

In 131 at-bats last season against left-handers, McCutchen hit .267 with a .389 slugging percentage and .742 OPS.

McCutchen’s leadership, passion for the city, and, more importantly, his still decent bat speed could make him a valuable asset as a pinch hitter late in games. 

His eye for the strike zone may be an asset with the new ABS challenge system going into place.

The Pirates vastly improved their roster this offseason. The downside for many fans is that it likely came at McCutchen’s expense. 

The Pirates and McCutchen could both benefit from one more year together, as long as the pieces go together for the Pirates to focus on getting back to the postseason for the first time in over a decade.

Whenever he ponders his professional future, Dave Roberts asks himself a simple question: What are you chasing?

A couple years ago, the answer left him with an “unsettling” feeling.

Before the Dodgers cemented their modern-day dynasty over the last two seasons, before they won back-to-back championships that burnished the legacy of their superstar roster and historically successful veteran manager, before they climbed to heights few clubs in more than a century of Major League Baseball have ever reached, a sense of uncertainty gnawed at Roberts as he considered the state of his career and his personal fulfillment in one of sports’ highest-profile posts.

He had the winningest managerial record in MLB history, plus a World Series ring from the Dodgers’ pandemic-altered 2020 championship.

But he was also “kind of thinking, ‘How much longer do I want to do this?’” he recalled, after early postseason eliminations in 2022 and 2023 had prompted external questions about his job security and an internal period of self-reflection within him.

“It was like, ‘What am I doing this for?’” Roberts told The California Post recently, sitting down for lunch at a beachside restaurant near his offseason home in San Diego. “I love the question, ‘What are you chasing?’ And I was there at home, [after] you lose, and you’re like, ‘What am I chasing?’ Am I chasing a championship? We already won one. Is that going to bring me joy and fulfillment? I didn’t have an answer.”

“That’s unsettling,” he added, “when you don’t have an answer to, ‘what are you chasing?’”

Two years later, all those doubts have washed away now.

Entering 2026, Roberts is at the pinnacle of his managerial career, on the verge of a World Series three-peat that he feels has validated the “steadfast [way] in how we’ve done things” over the last decade.

“We’ve been very consistent,” he said, citing everything from front-office and ownership stability to the culture the Dodgers have cultivated in their clubhouse. “I think that for us to look back on how we’ve won, I feel proud of that.”

He has felt a newfound embrace from the fan base, letting go of old frustrations –– “There’s times that I was resentful,” he admitted of the public criticisms he took earlier in his Dodgers tenure –– while expressing a deep gratitude for the way “they show up to support us every night.”

“I’d rather have fans that are passionate and care, even at the cost of me getting booed at home in a World Series,” he joked. “Which, I think I might hold the record with that.”

Most of all, Roberts has found a renewed satisfaction in his work. A purpose, he explained, that goes beyond wins and losses and championship rings.

“Now, I just feel I’m chasing happiness, joy and success –– whatever that means,” he said. “It’s certainly championships. But there’s a lot of other parts for me that I feel confident that I’m achieving.”

Roberts points back to last October’s title defense, highlighting the “complete buy-in” he received from the roster while managing an all-hands-on-deck pitching staff and shuffling players in and out of the lineup.

“Not one time was I questioned on my decision-making [by the players], which in turn would question their commitment to the team,” he said. “They all felt their time was coming. They all felt that their roles were really valued. I don’t think that any head coach or manager can say that.”

He cites his own growth in the dugout, and the way he feels his decision-making has “really slowed down” after a decade on the top step.

“I think that with Father Time as an athlete, there’s a bell curve,” he said. “But with coaching, your best years are with experience and as you get older. That’s the irony. And I do feel that I’m much more wise … At 53, I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.”

And as he begins a new four-year contract he signed last spring (which came with a record-setting $8.1 million annual salary), Roberts is no longer grappling his questions about his professional future.

“I’m not gonna say I’m going to manage for as long as Tommy [Lasorda] and Walt Alston,” he said, referencing his Hall-of-Fame predecessors’ 20-plus-year tenures with the club. “But I don’t see myself going anywhere for a while.”

Instead, the former big-league outfielder has made lifestyle changes he hopes will extend his managerial prime. Late last season, he overhauled his diet and almost entirely cut out alcohol. Over the course of this offseason, he got noticeably trimmer while shedding 12 pounds.

“I’m in the best shape of my managerial career,” Roberts joked, while sipping on a purple beet and carrot detox juice and picking at a rice bowl with chicken.

“It was in August, probably after we got swept in Pittsburgh, where I was like, ‘I need to make a change … It was a look in the mirror moment, where I said I was fat, I didn’t shave in three days, and I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’”

After all, Roberts didn’t want to be one of those “leaders or coaches that sort of let themselves go, where you look tired and beat up” (and no, he’s not naming names).

“I do think there’s an optics part of it,” he said. “If I come in looking healthy, and my energy is up, then I do think it can reflect [in] the clubhouse.”

He didn’t want to end up back in the place he was a couple years ago, either, wondering what he was chasing in a job that –– even beyond all the recent winning –– has him reinvigorated in both body and mind now.

“I’m enjoying the heck out of this,” he said. “I’m just re-energized. I really am.”

It’s prospect-ranking season, with both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline unveiling top-100 lists last week. On Monday, Keith Law at The Athletic revealed his annual preseason ranking of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Seven Dodgers made this list, their most prolific showing yet among these groups.

Just like at BA and MLB, four outfielders comprised the top four slots on Law’s list at The Athletic. The youngest of the group, Eduardo Quintero, earned the top spot among Dodgers here, ranked No. 9 by Law. Josue De Paula checked in at No. 20, Zyhir Hope was 36th, and Mike Sirota was 51st.

We’ve covered the outfielders of late here, so let’s focus here on the other three prospect ranked in the top 100 at The Athletic.

Shortstop Emil Morales ranked 65th at The Athletic, after showing up at No. 92 by MLB Pipeline last week.

River Ryan is ranked the 55th-best prospect by Law, who has always been the highest on the pitcher, ranking the right-hander 33rd overall in 2024 and 52nd in 2025. Ryan debuted with the Dodgers in 2024 but succumbed after only four starts, needing Tommy John surgery that wiped out his 2025 season as well.

From Law at The Athletic:

Ryan should be ready to pitch in some role this spring after hitting 100 mph during his rehab. If he were completely healthy, he might be the No. 1 pitching prospect in baseball. He has above-average to plus stuff across the board, with ride on the upper-90s four-seamer, a slider, a cutter that was new in 2024, a two-plane curveball and a changeup, with the cutter probably the worst pitch at the moment because his other stuff is so good.

The other Dodgers prospect ranked in the top 100 at The Athletic is shortstop Alex Freeland, the switch-hitter who made his major league debut in 2025 and played all over the infield in his five weeks with Los Angeles. Freeland is ranked the 87th-best prospect in baseball by Law, who said of the infielder, “He’s played shortstop, and could probably be a fringe-average big leaguer there, but he’s best suited to second or third.”

Ethan Salas plummeted 53 spots on Keith Law’s 2026 Top 100 MLB prospects list that was released by The Athletic, Monday. The 19-year-old catching prospect from Venezuela was the only San Diego Padres prospect to make the list, which is reflective of just how depleted the San Diego farm system is. Salas was the 17^th ranked prospect on Law’s list last year, but a back injury caused him to miss most of the 2025 season. Law cited the injury and lack of looks as the reason for his decline, adding he is not giving up on the prospect.

Salas signed with the Padres as the top international free agent in 2023 and was projected to be the next big-name catcher based on his age (16) and defensive ability. Defense has never been a problem for Salas, although some think his value behind the plate will drop with the advent of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) in 2026. It has been his offensive production that has raised concerns.

Salas played at three levels of professional baseball in 2023 with the Single-A Lake Elsinore Storm, High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps and Double-A San Antonio Missions and compiled 290 plate appearances in 66 games. His ascent through the minors was aggressive and the thought at the time was the Padres wanted to challenge Salas and see how he would handle the higher level of play. He finished with a combined slash line of .248/.331/.421 with 63 hits, including 13 doubles, two triples and nine home runs for the year. Since that time, his offensive production has fallen off.

Salas spent the 2024 season in High-A Fort Wayne and made 469 plate appearances in 111 games. His final line was .206/.288/.311 with 85 hits, including 27 doubles, two triples and four home runs. The expectation was with more time at the lower level Salas would find comfort at the plate and develop offensive consistency that would allow him to continue his progression through the minors at a more realistic pace.

Despite a down offensive year in High-A, Salas started the 2025 season in San Antonio with the Double-A affiliate. He played in just 10 games and made 41 plate appearances before it was announced in May that he suffered a stress reaction in his lower back in the middle of April. Initially, Salas was expected to miss a couple months, but he did not play the remainder of the season. Salas finished with a slash line of .188/.325/.219 and recorded six hits with one double, no triples and no homeruns before the injury.

Based on the performance or lack thereof by Salas, it makes sense that he would have a dramatic fall in the prospect rankings. Salas is expected to be ready for Spring Training, and a healthy season could go a long way toward him re-establishing his value and surely that is what Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller is hoping for. If Padres evaluations say Salas is not going to achieve the potential he had when he signed with San Diego, Preller could use a bounce-back season from him to move Salas in a trade that would improve the big-league roster for the second half of 2026 or 2027.

He is still a teenager and Padres fans would hate to see Preller and the organization give up on the former top prospect too soon, but Salas may no longer be the untouchable farmhand destined for stardom that he once was. By the time all is said and done, he may just be another prospect who is moved in a Preller deal.

The Mets capped off a busy week last Wednesday, acquiring Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers in a deal with the Brewers. 

Peralta lands David Stearns and the Mets the top of the rotation arm they’ve been searching for this offseason, but they did have to pay a pretty penny to receive him. 

New York parted ways with top prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat in the deal. 

While the youngsters were caught off guard by the trade, they are ready for the opportunity in Milwaukee.

“To this day I’m a bit in shock it actually happened,” Williams told reporters on Monday. 

“After hearing great things about the Brew Crew, I couldn’t be more excited,” Sproat added. 

That opportunity could come right away, as both Williams and Sproat are expected to compete for spots on the Brewers' Opening Day roster during their first spring training with the club. 

Williams will see the most of his time early on at shortstop, but his role in the majors could depend on team need. 

“I’m pretty comfortable at all three positions,” the 22-year-old said. “I’ve played them so much that they all come natural -- I think for me, as long as I’m playing, I don’t really care what position it is as long as I’m helping the team win.

“It’s just about showing up every day whenever they put me in. As of right now, it’s going to be shortstop, so just going into it with an open mind of wherever they put me I’ll play.”

As for Sproat, he'll fight for a spot in the Brewers' rotation, which has an opening after dealing Peralta. 

While the 2023 second-round pick is still a bit inexperienced with just four big-league starts under his belt, he’s eager to build off that late season call-up from the Mets in the midst of the NL Wild Card race. 

“Those first four starts it was in big situations, but it was fun,” he said. “Those helped get my feet wet. Now I know how those games are, how the environment is -- so going into camp you kind of have an idea of what it's going to be like."