Giants acquire Andrew McCutchen as era ends in Pittsburgh

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Show Caption Hide Caption Pirates heat up MLB's hot stove with two trades SportsPulse: MLB guru Steve Gardner takes a look at Pittsburgh trading away franchise star Andrew McCutchen (Giants) and ace right-hander Gerrit Cole (Astros), while speculating which domino might be next to fall.

For the second time in less than a month, the San Francisco Giants acquired a franchise player from a small-market team with designs on rebuilding.

This time, it was center fielder Andrew McCutchen, who led the Pittsburgh Pirates out of two decades of misery and into three consecutive playoff appearances.

Monday, the Pirates agreed to trade McCutchen, the 2013 National League MVP, to the Giants in exchange for right-hander Kyle Crick, minor league outfielder Bryan Reynolds and $500,000 in international signing bonus allocation. The Pirates also will send $2.5 million to the, just two days after dealing No. 1 starter Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros.

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A person with direct knowledge of the trade confirmed that it is complete, pending physicals for the players involved. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the deal has not yet been finalized.

The McCutchen deal, in particular, marks the end of an era in Pittsburgh, where the dynamic center fielder hit 203 home runs, posted an .866 OPS and appeared in five consecutive All-Star Games.

General manager Neal Huntington said he would have liked to have made McCutchen a "Pirate for life."

"In a perfect world, that would have been a great result for Pittsburgh, a great result for Andrew," owner Bob Nutting said. "I think the realities of the game, the realities of baseball right now don't allow that to be possible."

In San Francisco, he will join third baseman Evan Longoria, acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in December. Unlike Longoria, McCutchen has just one season remaining before he's eligible for free agency.

The deal ends 15 months of uncertainty for McCutchen, 31, who was originally placed on the trade block after the 2016 season. The Pirates were unable to consummate a deal involving him then, but moved him from center to right field before the 2017 season.

McCutchen reluctantly but gracefully accepted the reassignment, then returned to center field after Starling Marte was suspended 80 games for performance-enhancing drug use. In his final season in Pittsburgh, McCutchen hit 28 home runs and posted a .363 on-base percentage, a nice bounce back from a challenging 2016 season.

Contributing: Bob Nightengale

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