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PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen‘s decision to stay in Pittsburgh was not about pity. Or nostalgia. Or to enjoy a Farewell Tour or to chase of a specific milestone or reach a specific date.

That’s simply not how McCutchen’s mind works. The end will come soon enough. The 37-year-old Pirates icon knows this. He would just prefer to not think about it. It’s better that way.

So maybe the $5 million, one-year deal the five-time All-Star outfielder/designated hitter agreed to Wednesday will be his last. Maybe it won’t. There will come a time when he will retire as a Pirate.

That time is not now.

“There’s more that I can add to this team,” McCutchen said. “They’re not [re-signing me] out of any type of pity or just because of who I am. They’re doing it because they know there’s still a lot that I can still bring to this team. Not only off the field but on the field, too.”

McCutchen stressed when he came back to his adopted hometown last winter it was an open-ended decision. He wasn’t kidding. When his 2023 season ended in early September with a partially torn left Achilles, he didn’t hide his intent to re-up with the Pirates. There were no hiccups during negotiations, with both sides simply making sure there were no setbacks in McCutchen’s recovery.

There haven’t been, with McCutchen pointing out he’s going through his usual December routine of “swinging, throwing, working out, the whole nine, doing the things that we don’t really want to do but have to do because it’s our profession.”

A profession in which McCutchen has excelled for most of his 15 seasons. The 2013 NL Most Valuable Player got his 2,000th hit last June and was sitting one homer shy of 300 when he pulled up while legging out a double against Milwaukee on Sept. 4.

While allowing his body can’t quite do in his late-30s what it did a decade ago — when McCutchen was one of the most electric players in the game while helping Pittsburgh to three straight playoff berths — he feels he can still be productive.

“I know going into this year if I [can] just keep myself on the field and keep myself healthy, I think I’ll be able to be more consistent in a sense to where I may not be 2012 or ’13 Andrew McCutchen but I can be a hybrid of what I was last year and be consistent and better than I was,” he said.

And an return to the outfield, where he played a handful of games in 2023, isn’t out of the question. General manager Ben Cherington said the club will follow McCutchen’s lead in that area, an area that McCutchen thinks still is an important part of his identity as a player.

“[Playing in the outfield] does help me because that’s what I did my entire career. I was an everyday outfielder,” said McCutchen, a Gold Glove winner as a center fielder in 2012. “The transition of hitting more and being more of a DH presents challenges for me. I’m a guy where I work well when I’m constantly moving, constantly on my feet, in the action.”

McCutchen’s return last year gave the franchise as welcome dose of good publicity and also signaled a shift in the massive overhaul Cherington began when he took over in the fall of 2019. The Pirates went 76-86 in 2023, a 15-win improvement over 2022.

Another step forward is expected next year. The player most closely identified with Pittsburgh’s mini-Renaissance from 2013-15 thinks it’s time for a core that includes Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, outfielder Bryan Reynolds and towering 6-foot-7 shortstop Oneil Cruz to “put on our big-boy pants and get to work.”

“I feel like the Pirates have been under this window of development and rebuilding,” he said. “That’s always the word you always hear when it comes to teams that may struggle. They’ve got to find that way to build a championship ballclub. I think we’re in a place now where that’s out the window. There’s changes and things that need to be done. We need to be in a place to where we can win.”

Pittsburgh has added veteran left-handed pitchers Marco Gonzales and Martín Pérez to the rotation. First baseman Rowdy Tellez, who played with McCutchen in Milwaukee, agreed to a one-year deal this week. There is optimism inside the organization that the gap between the Pirates and the teams they’re chasing in the NL Central is closing.

McCutchen wants to be around long enough to see it through. Just don’t ask him to put a timetable on their future, or his. He thinks he can play at least two more years, but there are no plans to institute some sort of artificial deadline. It kind of ruins everything.

“I try to not put on too much pressure and try to go out and enjoy myself as much as I can, play as well as I can,” he said. “Because I do so much better when I’m just out there enjoying it.”

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Hurricanes: ‘Tough look’ not sticking up for Aho

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Hurricanes: 'Tough look' not sticking up for Aho

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Carolina Hurricanes regretted not sticking up for star center Sebastian Aho when he was mauled by Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk late in their Game 3 loss on Saturday night.

In the third period, with the Panthers cruising to a 6-2 win and a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, Tkachuk went after Aho with a series of shoves and cross-checks, eventually putting him in a headlock and bringing him down to the ice. The incident was seen as retaliation for Aho’s low hit on Florida’s Sam Reinhart that injured him in Game 2 and kept the forward out of the lineup on Saturday.

“I don’t really look at it as intent or intimidation at all. It’s just sticking up for teammates,” said Tkachuk, who was given a roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct. “We’re a family in there. It could happen to anybody and there’s probably 20 guys racing to be the guy to stick up for a teammate like that. That’s just how our team’s built. That’s why we’re successful. I don’t think any of us would be thrilled at that play in Game 2.”

But while Tkachuk was on top of Aho, who remained in the game, there was no chaotic response from the Hurricanes, nor any retaliation for the rest of the game. Carolina forward Taylor Hall said, in hindsight, there needed to be some reaction.

“I think what happened is that we don’t want to take penalties after the whistle, and they’re very good at goading you into them. But we have to support each other and make sure all five of us are having each other’s backs,” Hall said. “That was a tough look there, but we’ll battle for each other to no end.”

Coach Rod Brind’Amour said there needed to be a response, especially since the game was all but over on the scoreboard

“In that situation, there probably does. There’s a fine line. You don’t want to start advocating for that kind of hockey, necessarily. But with the game out of hand, yes, we have to do a better job of that with the game out of hand,” he said.

The Hurricanes face elimination on Monday night in Sunrise. They also face a 16th straight loss in the Eastern Conference finals, a streak that stretches back to 2009.

“We’re going to give our best tomorrow,” Hall said. “I think that we have a belief in our room, honestly. We’re playing for our season.”

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Stars rule forward Hintz out for Game 3 vs. Oilers

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Stars rule forward Hintz out for Game 3 vs. Oilers

EDMONTON — Dallas forward Roope Hintz has been ruled out for Game 3 of the Stars’ Western Conference finals series against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday.

Hintz was a game-time decision for Dallas after leaving the third period of Game 2 on Friday with an injury. The center took a slash from Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse less than four minutes into that final frame and was helped off the ice without appearing to put weight on his left leg.

Stars’ coach Pete DeBoer said on Saturday they were awaiting test results on Hintz before determining his status for Game 3. Hintz travelled with the team from Dallas and arrived at Rogers Place on Sunday without wearing a walking boot.

DeBoer still declared Hintz’s status uncertain about an hour before puck drop. Hintz took warmups with the Stars before Game 3 but left several minutes early without participating in line rushes.

Hintz has five goals and 11 points in 15 postseason games and ranked fourth on the Stars in regular-season scoring with 28 goals and 67 points in 76 games.

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Horse trainer Clement dies from rare eye cancer

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Horse trainer Clement dies from rare eye cancer

Christophe Clement, who trained longshot Tonalist to victory in the 2014 Belmont Stakes and won a Breeders’ Cup race in 2021, has died. He was 59.

Clement announced his own death in a prepared statement that was posted to his stable’s X account on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, if you are reading this, it means I was unable to beat my cancer,” the post said. “As many of you know, I have been fighting an incurable disease, metastatic uveal melanoma.”

It’s a type of cancer that affects the uvea, the middle layer of the eye. It accounts for just 5% of all melanoma cases in the U.S., however, it can be aggressive and spread to other parts of the body in up to 50% of cases, according to the Melanoma Research Alliance’s website.

The Paris-born Clement has been one of the top trainers in the U.S. over the last 34 years. He learned under his father, Miguel, who was a leading trainer in France. Clement later worked for the prominent French racing family of Alec Head. In the U.S., he first worked for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

Clement went out on his own in 1991, winning with the first horse he saddled at Belmont Park in New York.

“Beyond his accomplishments as a trainer, which are many, Christophe Clement was a kind and generous man who made lasting contributions to the fabric of racing in New York,” Dave O’Rouke, president and CEO of the New York Racing Association said in a statement.

Clement had 2,576 career victories and purse earnings of over $184 million, according to Equibase.

“I am very proud that for over 30 years in this industry, we have operated every single day with the highest integrity, always putting the horses’ wellbeing first,” he wrote in his farewell message.

One of his best-known horses was Gio Ponti, winner of Eclipse Awards as champion male turf horse in 2009 and 2010. He finished second to Zenyatta in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In the 2014 Belmont, Tonalist spoiled the Triple Crown bid of California Chrome, who tied for fourth. Tonalist won by a head, after not having competed in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness that year.

Steve Coburn, co-owner of California Chrome, caused controversy when he said afterward the horses that hadn’t run in the other two races took “the coward’s way out.” He later apologized and congratulated the connections of Tonalist.

Clement’s lone Breeders’ Cup victory was with Pizza Bianca, owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Clement had seven seconds and six thirds in other Cup races.

“It was Christophe’s genuine love for the horse that truly set him apart,” Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said in a statement. “He was a consummate professional and a welcoming gentleman whose demeanor was always positive, gracious and upbeat.”

Clement’s statement said he would leave his stable in the hands of his son and longtime assistant, Miguel.

“As I reflect on my journey, I realize I never worked a day in my life,” Clement’s statement said. “Every morning, I woke up and did what I loved most surrounded by so much love.”

Besides his son, he is survived by wife Valerie, daughter Charlotte Clement Collins and grandson Hugo Collins.

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