PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen is returning home.
According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the free agent outfielder has agreed to a one-year deal to return to the Pittsburgh Pirates, McCutchen's first Major League team.
It's been five seasons since McCutchen donned a Pirates' uniform, but they were certainly the best years of his career.
From 2009 through the 2017 season, McCutchen had 1463 hits for Pittsburgh, along with 203 home runs and 725 RBI's. He won the 2013 National League MVP award, and finished in the top five of the MVP voting in four straight years from 2012 to 2015.
After 2018 offseason traded that saw McCutchen dealt to the San Francisco Giants, he would find himself again on the move at the MLB Trade Deadline to the New York Yankees.
Neither of those teams proved to be a long term home for McCutchen, but he did return to Pennsylvania to play for the Philadelphia Phillies on a three-year contract, beginning in 2019.
Unfortunately for McCutchen, only 59 games into his Philadelphia tenure, he suffered a knee injury that saw him miss the rest of the 2019 season.
He was able to nearly replicate his hot start in 2019 to the COVID-19 pandemic shortened 202 season, and saw his power take off in 2021 with 27 home runs in his final season with the Phillies.
In 2022, McCutchen spent the season as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers outfield, hitting .237 with 17 home runs and 69 RBI's.
Now 36-years-old, McCutchen returns to Pittsburgh as a veteran player that could help mentor the next core of Pirates' young players.
While there has been no official announcement from the team yet, it appears they have acknowledged the move on social media: