7-31-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
With the recent long-overdue induction of Pirates legend, Dave Parker, into Cooperstown, it makes on thing about another more modern Pirates legend and whether he will reach high enough heights to one day earn a plaque hanging among the greatest of contemporaries. And it begs the question: What is the threshold for membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Is it standard numbers like runs, homers or average? Is it more modern in value like OPS+ Is it a minimum WAR or a specific peak?
For as much as fans may cheer for certain players, the Hall of Fame is expected to be the best of the best. Sure, there are some notable exceptions that can be chalked up to a number of reasons but can Andrew McCutchen find a way to make the cut once he one day hangs up his cleats?
Cutch currently sits at 49.1 bWAR, just behind another overlooked centerfielder, Bernie Williams (49.6) who has a similar case for the Hall: 2,336 hits, 125 career OPS+, a couple of gold gloves and a silver slugger – as well as some championship rings but that’s irrelevant.
But Bernie, for as good as he was surrounded by talent, he was never the best at what he did at any point in his career.
Williams’s 5-year peak from 1997-2001 saw him accrue 26.6 WAR with 5 All Star nods and 4 top-20 MVP finishes on Yankees squads which went to the World Series 4 of those 5 seasons.
Cutch’s 5-year peak of 2011-2015 saw him accrue 31.4 WAR with 5 All Star appearances, 4 top-5 MVP finishes, including taking home the trophy in 2013 – all this in spite of being surrounded by much less talent than Williams experienced. In that 5-year window, the Pirates offense combined for a paltry 97 wRC+ while Cutch had the 5th best mark among all of MLB over that stretch at 151.
All this while leading a team and city bereft of playoff baseball for 20 years to the promised land of October baseball.
Another close comparison comes from another center fielder who has a couple rings on his profile as well as a place in Cooperstown: Kirby Puckett.
Puckett led the league in hits 4 times, total bases twice and won the batting title once while finishing top 3 in MVP voting three times without taking home the trophy; however, he did play a critical role in the 1987 and 1991 World Series runs for the Twins, slashing a combined .309/.361/.536 over 109 plate appearances through 24 postseason games.
While Cutch didn’t manage to reach the Promised Land (yet!), in a small sample size, he contributed – with Pittsburgh, at least – as he posted a .321/.441/.357 slash over 34 plate appearances across 8 postseason games from 2013 through 2015.
But Cutch won an MVP – something neither Puckett nor Williams managed to achieve in their respective illustrious careers.
So what are the arguments against Cutch making the Hall? Well…there are a couple of factors.
If you’re a traditionalist, you might not like his career strikeout totals. Sure, he’s lauded for his eye at the plate but just because he knows the strike zone doesn’t mean the home plate ump agrees, and he’s been rung up 1,858 times so far in his career – ranking 20th most all-time.
He’s never had a season where he K’d over 150 times but the longevity of his career has accrued a lot of strike 3 calls and, at his current pace, he’ll likely enter the top 15 all-time by the end of this year. An additional season and he could be in the top ten and, while having a lot of strikeouts isn’t necessarily disqualifying in nature (fwiw, the all-time strikeout leader is Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson), it also isn’t the kind of red you want on your ledger.
For another reason, he just doesn’t have HoF caliber numbers – either via JAWS (which calculates a player’s 7-year peak) or by total raw numbers.
He won’t reach 3,000 hits. Or 400 home runs. Or 1,500 runs or RBI. And while he played center field during his first stint with the Bucs, he became a corner outfielder once he left and has been almost exclusively a designated hitter since returning.
His JAWS score is 43.9 is decisively below the average center fielder mark for the Hall (58.0) and, as mentioned, his total mark is not in the ballpark of many more modern members either but, through pure consistency, he has achieved a number of marks that few others have reached.
He is one of 11 players with 10+ home runs in 17+ seasons and one of 12 players in history to record 400 doubles, 300 homers, 200 stolen bases and 50 triples in his career.
And yes, these are very specific and mildly abstract markers that likely falls short but is still an impressive tally for an impressive career from number 22.
So while he certainly will earn a spot in the Pirates Hall of Fame once he hangs up his cleats, it seems a steep climb to reach the mount in Cooperstown for Cutch.
Then again, when it comes to Cutch, you never know…
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