There is romance in American baseball, the king of capitalism. Andrew McCutchen (36), who returned to his ‘home team’ Pittsburgh Pirates, wears number 22, which had been vacant for five years.
Pittsburgh and McCutchen signed a one-year-$5 million contract on the 14th (Korean time). This is the return to the parent team after 6 years since the last 2017 season.
After leaving Pittsburgh, McCutchen played for the San 안전놀이터 Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and last year with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Currently, his skills are significantly reduced. However, his parent team, Pittsburgh, signed a contract with McCutchen and presented him with the number 22 uniform. Number 22 is McCutchen’s iconic uniform number.
Pittsburgh has not given the number 22 to any player since McCutchen left the team. Chris Archer, who wore number 22 for the Tampa Bay Rays, changed his number after moving to Pittsburgh.
McCutchen is the symbol of Pittsburgh right now. He was a first-round pick by Pittsburgh in the 2005 draft, and played from 2009 to 2017.
In particular, McCutchen became an All-Star five times in Pittsburgh, won MVP once, Silver Slugger four times, and Gold Glove once.
During his 9 seasons in Pittsburgh, he appeared in 1346 games and had a batting average of 0.291, 203 home runs, 725 RBIs, 814 runs, 1463 hits, and an on-base percentage of 0.379 OPS of 0.866.
Accordingly, Pittsburgh kept McCutchen’s number 22 until the end, and presented the number again when he returned. It seems that the contract with McCutchen has been in Pittsburgh’s plans for a long time.