BRADENTON, Fla. — Andrew McCutchen has thought about it.

Maybe you have, too.

Despite constructing an incredible legacy during his first run with the Pirates — helping them end 20 years of losing and reach the postseason for the first time since 1992, four times finishing in the top five for National League MVP voting — I can't help but fantasize what it would mean for McCutchen to once more pull the club out of a negative abyss.

"It would be quite the story, right?" McCutchen said with a smile when I broached the idea with him on Saturday morning.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

While frustration with the Pirates this past offseason has obviously been high, McCutchen represents positivity, a reminder of better days, a player who understands what it takes to win and how to get this right.

It's also the type of feel-good story we could use right now, in the middle of a transition for the Penguins and too much of the same old stuff from the Steelers.

McCutchen, of course, isn't consumed by much of that. He may not even know, honestly. He's always been the type to focus on his world, his job, everything else be damned. But I do find it interesting that McCutchen has been thinking about what the moment would mean for him in the bigger picture.

"I'm hoping," McCutchen said. "I've been visualizing it. There's a reason I'm here. There's a reason I came back. I didn't come back just to lose for three years, and that's it.

"No way am I alluding to this being my last year. But if it is, the hope is to have a neat story like that."

In typical McCutchen fashion, he then offered an anecdote by describing a moment he's been thinking about a lot recently.

The day was Sept. 25, 2014 — Derek Jeter's last game at Yankee Stadium. In the bottom of the ninth, Jeter stepped to the plate with one on and one out. Former Pirate Evan Meek was pitching for the Orioles when Jeter slapped a single the other way for a walk-off win.

"I think about moments like that all the time," McCutchen said. "Even [Albert] Pujols' last year [in 2022], to watch what he did. The times we played against him, he was always in these situations where it was like, 'Second and third, no outs, down two, three-run homer, they take the lead in the seventh, vintage Pujols.'

"Obviously I didn't like that it happened, but at the same time, I liked that it happened. I live for moments like that."

Is it crazy to think McCutchen could have a moment like that here? I don't think so.

My week in Bradenton was a productive one when it came to learning more about the 2025 Pirates.

We know they'll have a strong starting rotation, but I've actually liked how the bullpen has looked — outside of David Bednar's struggles.

From an offensive standpoint, I heard good things about new hitting coach Matt Hague, important because the Pirates must score more runs. The veterans with playoff experience they added this winter have had a positive impact, especially Tommy Pham.

We'll see if it all comes together. It's certainly possible, if the Pirates can maintain how they fared through 110 games last year (56-54) and break through the way the club did in 2013 after two years that are eerily similar to what we've seen on the North Shore recently.

The Pirates' combined record in 2011-12: 151-173

In 2023-24: 152-172

Again, stuff needs to happen, like better years from Jack Suwinski, Henry Davis, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo. Health is obviously paramount. But I swear they haven't been eliminated from playoff contention already.

Taking the next step has been a frequent topic of discussion for McCutchen since returning — how the trajectory of those teams compare to the current group. I brought it up to McCutchen again on Saturday, and his answer — ignore the noise and narrow the focus — makes sense.

It's also consistent with an over-arching message that was easy to detect in Bradenton: Winning will happen through a series of small victories, especially when it comes to individual improvement and better fundamentals.

In 2013, the switch flipped because the Pirates had pitching and defense, they hit enough, and their chemistry and mentality helped them play their best brand of baseball more consistently than other clubs.

"Don't think about yesterday or tomorrow, learn from today," McCutchen said, describing one lesson this group can heed from the last one. "Shower it off. That was our mantra. Focus on today, right now. People would come in every single day and be like, 'Focus on the day. Let's do what we have to do today.' And that's what we did.

"If we focus more on that, that's when things will start to snowball [in a good way]. If that's not the focus, it'll go the other way, like it's been going. I think we're moving in the right direction."

That mindset has actually governed how McCutchen has approached his own career.

Instead of setting some sort of boundary, telling the rest of baseball that this will be his final season, McCutchen has resisted. He's actually never going to announce that. We joked that he's more likely to pull an Irish goodbye when it's all said and done, then disappear for a couple years.

"I know my wife doesn't like it," McCutchen said. "But that's just kind of how I am."

McCutchen is also the type of player who thinks things through, who refuses to make himself a distraction or put himself above the team. Probably more than anything, that's why he refuses to say whether this is it.

After all, there's that dream to chase, that moment, and he doesn't want anything personal to get in the way of it.

"I don't want to make the whole year about me," McCutchen said. "It's not fair to the guys around me. They'll think, 'Hey, it's Cutch's last year. We have to honor that.' No, you don't. We gotta win. It doesn't have anything to do with my last year.

"I also worry that I could check out. It's easy to sit here and be like, 'I'm done.' It's not fair to the people around me. And it's not fair to me."

McCutchen is right.

It's also fair to him for this to happen, this magical storyline, the perfect coda to his return, McCutchen — the best and most revered Pirate since Barry Bonds — adding more positivity to his immense legacy.

It would certainly be quite the story.

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