McCutchen trade not a white flag for Bucs

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — General Manager Neal Huntington is open to trading Andrew McCutchen. That doesn’t mean he’s abandoning hopes of the Pirates returning to the postseason next season.

These issues are not mutually exclusive.

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As unpopular as it would be to part ways with the former National League Most Valuable Player, a McCutchen trade — the right McCutchen trade — could set up the Pirates to remain contenders in 2017 and beyond, not just in the two seasons left on McCutchen’s contract.

That’s the reasoning that drives Huntington and the Pirates’ front office as they head into face-to-face meetings with executives of the Nationals, Rangers and any other teams interested in McCutchen.

Huntington recently conceded that “it is no coincidence that we were good when Andrew McCutchen was good,” but he vowed to pursue every possibility to improve from last year’s 78-win season.

“If that means we make decisions that are unpopular, it means we make decisions that are unpopular,” Huntington said.

Huntington and his staff did a great job to build the Pirates team that reached the postseason three years in a row under manager Clint Hurdle, whose hiring ranks as one of Huntington’s best moves. That success should buy some trust from the fan base, as difficult as it would be for Pittsburgh fans to watch McCutchen in another uniform.

Every player in baseball is, to use Theo Epstein’s terminology, a “fungible asset.” The guys who run franchises aren’t allowed the same kind of sentiment that lies behind the passion of fans. They have to make calculated business decisions that tip the odds in their favor.

The Pirates have a cast of outfielders in Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco and prospect Austin …

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