Pirates' Coonelly: 'We Would Love To Have Andrew Around For His Entire Career'
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - With talk swirling around Pirates spring training about whether or not the Pirates should be looking into locking center fielder Andrew McCutchen up to a long-term extension, Pirates President Frank Coonelly joined Starkey and Mueller to talk about the team's view on McCutchen and his future.
"We would love to have Andrew around for his entire career," Coonelly said. "We have not gotten into extension talks with Andrew or his representative at this point and, as you guys know, when we do, we try as hard as we can to do it very quietly so that it makes it more likely that we can succeed in getting a contract done."
An extension with McCutchen would certainly cost the team the largest contract they have ever given out, and Coonelly talks about what it's like having players that are worth that kind of money.
"When you have a cornerstone, a generational type player like Andrew McCutchen, you will stretch as an organization, and we hope as the Pittsburgh Pirates that we're in a position financially and in a stable financial position where we can stretch for a player like Andrew McCutchen."
Coonelly also talked about what it takes to put a championship caliber team together, which they're striving to do, and how allocating too much of your overall payroll to just one or two players can be detrimental to that cause.
"I certainly would not say we're out of any market," Coonelly said. "There's question of allocating dollars most effectively and efficiently and there are concerns with many organizations, and we would be one of them, about allocating a much higher percentage of your overall payroll than you're comfortable to any one player or in fact any two players, because as we all know, you need 25 really good players to be a championship caliber team, and if you allocate too much of what you can allocate in total to one player, the history of the game tells us that those teams typically are not successful and don't win championships and we're in this to win championships for the Pittsburgh Pirates fans."
Coonelly also talked about whether or not the team would be willing to work on a contract extension during the season with a player since some teams shy away from that practice.
"I think it depends on the player," Coonelly said. "Since we've been here, the only one that I can remember we did in season, and it had started in spring training and continued, was Jose Tabata. Even if the player doesn't view it as a distraction, it's not optimal. We don't have a hard and fast rule that we'll never talk about a contract extension with a current player during the season, but it's not optimal and it's something that normally I find you can either reach an agreement with a player or not reach an agreement and there's typically not reasons to extend those discussions beyond the start of the season."
Click the link below to hear more from Coonelly on McCutchen, the arbitration process (why he doesn't like it), and all the new upgrades to PNC Park and the team's spring training facilities.
