MLB Bullets walks the plank

I glued a jigsaw puzzle together because it was easier that taking it apart and putting it back in the box.

• I’m sure you’ve heard this already, but the Pirates traded outfielder Andrew McCutchen to the Giants for prospects Kyle Crick and Brian Reynolds.
• Michael Baumann writes that this move signals the end of an era and a return to the wilderness for the Pittsburgh franchise.
• Buster Olney writes that Pittsburgh fans may never forgive the Pirates for dealing away McCutchen. He also compares the Pirates of the mid-teens to the Royals and argues that Pittsburgh fans would be more accepting of the deal if the Pirates had won a title like the Royals did.
• Jon Tayler hits a similar note on the Royals and argues that Pirates owner Bob Nutter betrayed their fans by not making a bigger effort and increasing payroll during their window of contention like the Royals did.
• Grant Brisbee looks back at how McCutchen and his teammates led the Pirates out of their record-setting lost era and is sad that those days have clearly returned to Pittsburgh after too short a season in the sun.
• Will Leitch takes a different take and says that while McCutchen leaving Pittsburgh may be sad, it was a necessary move for the team to move forward.
• There is a report that McCutchen was offered to the Mets but they refused to part with outfielder Brandon Nimmo. Probably wise for just one year of McCutchen. Are we sure we’re talking about the same Mets?
• With McCutchen and Gerrit Cole now gone, Josh Harrison says that he wants to be traded to a contender.
• But Pirates reliever Felipe Rivero is sticking around as he’s agreed to a new four-year extension with the team. However, this deal was agreed to before the McCutchen trade and at least from his comments on social media, Rivero seems to be wondering what he’s gotten himself into.
• Going back to the Cole trade, the Pirates have been criticized for not getting prospects with more upside for their ace. But as Kiley McDaniel notes, the Pirates payroll limitations forces them to value players differently.
• Also, Jeff Sullivan believes that one of the players the Pirates got for Cole, Colin Moran, showed signs last year of making adjustments that could result in a big increase in power.
• Turning to the Giants, they announced that McCutchen is their new right fielder, with Hunter Pence moving to left. McCutchen had protested when the Pirates moved him to right field earlier, but he said that playing right field in AT&T Park is a whole different animal. (And he’s right.)
• The Giants still need a center fielder and are reportedly looking at free agent Jarrod Dyson.
• Mike Oz is wondering what the Giants plan is because even with McCutchen and Evan Longoria, San Francisco still isn’t anywhere near as good as the Dodgers. I’ll add that Oz is a Giants fan, if that makes any difference.
• Mike Axisa looks at what the Giants need to do yet this winter in order to have a shot at challenging the Dodgers.
• Bradford Doolittle looks at how good the Giants are now and writes that the team had little choice but to go for it with the McCutchen and Longoria moves.
• This is probably the most important story of the day, and maybe of the month, but the McCutchen story is more timely so it led. But Jeff Passan talks to people in both management, agents and players and says this winter’s slow market is a sign that baseball’s current economic system is broken. He traces the decline of the Players’ Association and also reports that at least “one of the best free agents” was willing to sit out until mid-season to get the contract he wanted.
• Craig Calcaterra also looks at the current sad state of the MLBPA and how it got here.
• Additionally, commissioner Rob Manfred is set to unilaterally implement a pitch clock and limits on mound visits because the union agreed to let him have that power in the last collective bargaining agreement.
• OK, back to signings or the lack thereof. We do have one more free agent who signed as outfielder Curtis Granderson agreed to sign with the Blue Jays on a one-year, $5 million deal.
• On to the mess that is the Marlins, the agent for outfielder Christian Yelich told the team that the relationship between Yelich and the Marlins is “irretrievably broken” and that the team should trade him.
• And despite his earlier denials, Marlins team president Derek Jeter is working to remove the Home Run Sculpture at Marlins Park. I don’t think I could hate Jeter more. His nickname is no longer “the Captain.” It’s “The Savonarola of South Beach.” (Google it if you don’t get the reference.)
• Anthony Castrovince compares free agent starters Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish.
• David Schoenfield lists the worst current contract for every team. One guess what the Cubs’ worst contract is. I don’t care. We got a ring.
• Like every other free agent, legend Ichiro Suzuki is finding the market for his services slim and is thinking of playing in Japan next season.
• Retired Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Jeremy Dorn makes the case that the Cubs and Dodgers will be the next biggest rivalry in the National League. I won’t have any problem hating the Dodgers, but they are a ways down my list at the moment. That could change. I certainly don’t hate the Mets like I did in the 1980s.
• Likewise, Jonathan Bernhardt argues that the Yankees and Astros is the next great AL rivalry.
• Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina says he will retire at the end of his current contract in 2020. I won’t miss him. I will admit he has been a great player.
• In light of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Mike Lupica writes about the lifelong friendship between former Cardinals Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver.
• Here are some more ballplayer portraits added to the Google Arts and Culture app that’s all the rage this week. I just want to add, because it bugs the heck out of me, that the author of this piece, Michael Clair, has no freakin’ clue what “Victorian” is. He put a portrait from a painter from pre-revolutionary France and thinks that Kris Bryant looks like a “Victorian” aristocrat. Wrong century and wrong country, Dude.
• And finally, the Brewers signed first baseman Ji-Man Choi to a minor league deal. But if he makes the major league team, he probably won’t be staying at the historic Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. Choi admitted that he’s one of several major leaguers who insist that the hotel is haunted.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.