Is Pirates' Andrew McCutchen primed for another MVP run?

PITTSBURGH -- Andrew McCutchen is not usually the introspective type.

But the Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder seems surprised by his rise to being the face of a resurgent franchise and one of the most popular players in baseball.

McCutchen grew up in Fort Meade, a Florida town with a population of approximately 6,000 that is 60 miles southeast of Tampa and 75 miles southwest of Orlando in the heart of phosphate mining country.

“Fort Meade is so small that everybody knows everybody,” McCutchen said. “People don’t know me as Andrew McCutchen. They know me as Drew. They don’t know me as a baseball player. They know I play baseball, of course. But they just know me as the little kid who grew up on Fourth Street.

“That’s my hometown. That’s where I grew up. That’s how it is and how it should be.”

POWER RANKINGS:Where do the Bucs rank?

McCutchen concedes he occasionally will think about how much his life has changed. He has become a superstar, winning the National League MVP Award in 2013 and finishing in the top five in voting in each of the last four seasons.

“I never envisioned anything like this,” he said. “The mission was to make it to the major leagues. That was it. I really didn’t think about anything past that. I was 17 when I got drafted, and I just thought it would be awesome to play for a professional team.

“As a kid, when you saw people on television, they were famous — in a positive way, not Cops or something like that. I thought that if you wanted to make something of yourself, you got yourself on television.

“That’s what I’ve got here now. It’s everything I wanted and more.”

What McCutchen, 29, also wants is to spend his entire career with the Pirates.

Pittsburgh has become home as he married a western Pennsylvania native. He is proud that he has helped turn a franchise that set a major North American team sports record with 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 to 2012 into one that has gained a berth in each of the last three NL wild-card games.

While life isn’t quite as simple for McCutchen in Pittsburgh as it is in Fort Meade, he has adjusted to living in the North — even to the cold weather — and encounters few hassles in Pittsburgh, a small city by Major League Baseball standards.

“I was a Southern boy — taught to say please, thank you, sir and ma’am — and respect other people and their privacy,” McCutchen said. “When I came up north, it was an adjustment. People are still polite, but in a different way, and I’ve adjusted.

“Everyone is pretty good around Pittsburgh, respecting my privacy when I’m out, but I usually just spend time around my house and live a pretty dull life.”

McCutchen is excited about 2016. The five-time All-Star is healthy and thinks he is poised for his best season. “I feel as good as I ever have,” he said. “I feel strong. I feel like I have my legs under me. I feel like I have my power back. I just feel very prepared going into this season. I’m excited about the possibilities for myself and this team.”

Hampered by a sore left knee last season, McCutchen had a down year — by his standards — hitting .292 with 23 home runs, 11 steals and a .889 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 157 games. It still was good enough to help the Pirates to the second-best regular-season record in the major leagues at 98-64 and get him a fifth-place finish in NL MVP voting.

McCutchen missed nearly two weeks of exhibition games because of the knee and then got off to an awful start in the regular season. He hit .194 with two home runs in 21 games in April, and his batting average dropped to .188 on May 6 before he eventually adjusted.

While spring training statistics usually don’t mean a lot, McCutchen knew he was back to normal when he hit five home runs over a seven-game span late in the Grapefruit League season in Florida.

“That was a good sign, because I couldn’t do what I wanted to do last year,” he said. “I couldn’t prepare how I wanted to prepare. I had to compensate for certain things. That’s all that was.

“But my body is in good shape, so I’m in good shape. Don’t have to worry about it now. As long as you feel good, you go out there and play good.”

The Pirates are counting on McCutchen more than ever to spark the offense after an offseason in which first baseman Pedro Alvarez was not tendered a contract and signed with the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent and second baseman Neil Walker was traded to the New York Mets for left-hander Jon Niese.

Alvarez hit a team-high 27 home runs, and Walker added 16.

To compensate for the loss of power, the Pirates have decided to bunch their highest on-base percentage hitters at the top of the order. First baseman John Jaso is leadoff hitter, despite having 15 stolen bases in his eight-year career, and McCutchen is hitting second after doing so 17 times in his first seven seasons.

McCutchen had been a mainstay in the No. 3 hole since the Pirates began their run of postseason appearances in 2013.

“It’s a different look, and it’s an adjustment for all us,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “My entire career, it’s always been the baddest dude in the lineup who hits third, and there’s no question Andrew is a bad dude. But we really feel like this the way to go and that Andrew will do a great job in the 2 hole.”

McCutchen has looked comfortable batting second as he went 13-for-52 (.250) with in the first 13 games.

The upside to batting McCutchen second is that he likely will get about 50 more plate appearances over the course of the season than if he were batting third.

“I like it,” he said. “It really doesn’t matter to me where I hit. Whatever helps us the most as a team is fine with me.”