McCutchen’s down year was likely a fluke

You can wring your hands. You can shake your head. You can sigh all you want, but I’m shrugging over the Andrew McCutchen of 2016.

I remember the Johnny Bench of 1971.

What a mess.

As a Big Red Machine fan, I still shiver with that 45-year-old memory, when Bench went from destroying opponents for the Reds with his bat, his arm and his glove for National League Most Valuable Player Award honors in 1970 to looking clueless and listless throughout the next season.

So you think McCutchen did the unprecedented by imploding out of nowhere this year for the Pirates? Well, consider this: Bench finished 1970 with more home runs (45) and RBIs (148) than anybody in baseball, and he was a catcher. Back then, catchers not named Yogi Berra or Roy Campanella didn’t do those types of things, and Bench also hit .293 for the second consecutive year. He made his third straight trip to the All-Star Game and earned his third Gold Glove Award.

Just like that, I, along with everybody else, kept wondering if the statue they’d build of Bench someday would feature him standing in the batter’s box or squatting behind the plate.

Then came Bench’s 1971. Yikes.

While folks panic over McCutchen’s batting average dropping from .292 in 2016 .256 this past season, Bench’s sank from .293 in 1970 to .238 in ’71. While McCutchen’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage went from .401 and .488 to .336 and .430, Bench’s slid from .345 and .587 to .299 and .423. While McCutchen went from 96 RBIs to 79, Bench collapsed from 148 to 61.

• McCutchen to Nats talks appear to heat up

I would do the math for you, but I’ll keep it simple: Bench’s plunge across the board over two seasons was much worse than McCutchen’s, and I …

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