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Milwaukee Brewers in talks with Andrew McCutchen, per report

The Brewers are talking with the long-time outfielder.

Philadelphia Phillies v Miami Marlins Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images

As camp is in its second day, the Brewers are still busy on the free agent market, and they are in talks with one long-time familiar face from his time in Pittsburgh: Andrew McCutchen. Ken Rosenthal of The Atlantic reports that the Brewers are currently in talks with McCutchen.

The Brewers are very familiar with Andrew McCutchen, first from his years in Pittsburgh and overall career within the National League. He has played all but 25 of his games with a National League team (he did play 25 with the Yankees in 2018). He just finished a three-year contract with the Phillies, who bought out his contract option after the 2021 season. Unfortunately, McCutchen is not the same player as he was during his time with the Pirates. Last season, he only batted .222/.334/.444, but still did show some power with 27 home runs and 80 RBI. He also is a workhorse, playing at least 144 games a season every season except two of the last three. He only played 59 games in 2019, and then played 57 of the 60 in the shortened 2020 season.

Outfield is not the biggest need for the Brewers, though. The Brewers did lose Avisail Garcia in free agency, but also swapped outfielders, bringing in Hunter Renfroe while sending Jackie Bradley Jr. and two prospects to the Red Sox. They also have Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Tyrone Taylor for the outfield. However, with the addition of the DH, there are plenty of at-bats to go around, so McCutchen could provide some support in an outfield rotation.

Brewer Nation also brings up some good points about McCutchen, in regards to his leadership and bat against LHP:

McCutchen might be a strange signing for the team, but with the need for offense evident, any bat would be welcome. It’s unclear what type of deal this would be, but at 35 years old, it wouldn’t be anything long term.