News of Andrew McCutchen's trade by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the San Francisco Giants has left Baseball Twitter awash in frustration and hot takes today, mostly from disgruntled Pirates fans who are questioning their franchise's decision to trade away its most recognizable player.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported as much earlier today:
It's tough to quantify how much Andrew McCutchen meant to Pittsburgh, but that hasn't stopped hundreds of Pirates fans from trying anyway... Fans, of course, took to Twitter after news of the trade broke. Many thanked McCutchen for his time in Pittsburgh, and some expressed happiness that their favorite player will now join a team that intends to compete.
McCutchen, for those who may not be aware of the dynamics at play, is beloved by the Steel City faithful for bringing back competitive, meaningful baseball to Pittsburgh after decades of subpar play, and in the stroke of a single trade he is now gone.
As a lifelong baseball fan, McCutchen's trade is part of a longer trend in Major League Baseball that saddens me: making the franchise player obsolete.
Perhaps I was spoiled by being a Braves fan, but game in and game out, I relished knowing that Chipper Jones would be starting at Third Base, batting in the opening frame of offense, and doing this for as many games as he was uninjured (which was, sadly, always too few).
Great players came and went throughout the years, including the legendary Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Javy Lopez, John Smoltz, and others, but Chipper always remained the one shining constant that caused me to tune in game after game, season after season.
The aforementioned is one reason why I will be attending Chipper's Hall-Of-Fame induction this coming summer, but I digress on that tangent.
You see - for as much as I was a Braves fan first and foremost, having a single player's consistent presence that I cherished was as much a motivating factor to remain interested as the team itself - and this is frankly no longer the case, as players disappear nowadays as soon as they arrive.
Talent is matured in the Minors to largely become bargaining chips for temporary veteran fixes at the trade deadline and rosters are subject to the whims of arbitrary gutting by front offices fixated with either budget margins or sabermatic roster movements.
This is - mostly - impetulant whining on my behalf at the changes in Major League Baseball I dislike, but I still think my overall concerns are valid: if fans don't have someone to follow and to root for, why cheer for the same franchise of 25 interchangeable players year in and year out?
The Pirates did more than trade away an above average outfielder today; they traded away the face and hope of their fans in an attempt to bring the budget under a certain number.
McCutchen, for his part, Tweeted out the following message several hours after news of the trade broke:
There is simply no business decision that will ever justify a fan's heartbreak.
Author's Note: I know this is not my typical subject matter for this website, but in light of the hub bub created by McCutchen's trade, I figured it might be prudent to weigh-in with some of my long simmering thoughts on this matter.
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