By most measures, Andrew McCutchen’s 25-game stint with the Yankees in 2018 was a success.
After spending a mediocre bulk of the season with the Giants, McCutchen took over the leadoff spot in the Yankees lineup, won the starting left-field job over Brett Gardner and reached base at a .421 clip, while scoring 18 runs in just 87 at-bats.
He hoped he could parlay his solid play down the stretch into a significant free-agent contract, maybe in the Bronx. But as the offseason began, he heard nothing but crickets, with the Yankees appearing to show no interest.
“None,” McCutchen told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday.
So he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, getting $50 million over three years. There were no hard feelings — the 32-year-old knew the Yankees had other needs to fill.
“Starting pitching was the Yankees’ priority, and that made sense because that’s what they needed most,” McCutchen said.
“Maybe I would have been a priority for the Yankees later, but I wanted to sign pretty quick. I didn’t want to have to wait around because clearly we’ve seen the last two years what happens if you wait.”
The Yankees will turn back to Gardner — who signed a one-year, $7.5 million contract three days after the World Series ended — in left field. They were able to save $3 million by not picking up Gardner’s option, a much more team-friendly approach than shelling out big bucks for McCutchen. They then signed Aaron Hicks to a seven-year contract this week.
Gardner and Hicks are part of an outfield rotation that also includes Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and possibly Clint Frazier. They likely wouldn’t have been willing to match the money that the free-spending Phillies offered, either.
“Does [McCutchen] fit the landscape that we had at certain times?” Yankees VP of baseball operations Tim Naehring said. “We have a lot of respect for him and, yeah, there’s a lot of interest, but obviously there were some other areas that we had to focus in on.
”We had a tremendous amount of interest in the player. Whether or not the dollar amount or the length of the contract would have been one that fits the landscape of where the Yankees are right now, I don’t know. But when it’s all said and done, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the player and the person.”
Meanwhile, McCutchen will take over the starting left-field job in Philadelphia, possibly across the diamond from Bryce Harper.
“I enjoyed my time with the Yankees,” McCutchen said. “I did. It was only a month, but it was a fun month for me, a good experience. I did something I never thought I’d do, which was wearing pinstripes. It was a good ride for the time being.”
He also predicts his former team will have a big year.
“They made some great moves,” he said. “Getting a guy like [James] Paxton. Re-signing [J.A.] Happ and [Zack] Britton. Signing [Adam] Ottavino as well. They made some good moves. Getting that starting pitching, having a bullpen that’s amazing and the way that they score runs. … They’re going to be all right.”