Outfielder Andrew McCutchen signed a minor-league deal with the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
McCutchen, 39, is a candidate to platoon at designated hitter with Joc Pederson, the Dallas Morning News reported.
If McCutchen is added to the 40-man roster, he would make a base salary of approximately $1.5 million, according to multiple reports. The deal is pending completion of a physical, ESPN reported.
He played in 135 games — 120 at designated hitter — and posted a .239 batting average with 13 home runs, 22 doubles and 57 RBIs with the Pirates last season. McCutchen was holding out for a return to Pittsburgh, but the franchise that drafted him out of high school in the first round in 2005 showed little interest in bringing him back.
An All-Star five consecutive seasons and the 2013 National League MVP, McCutchen played the first nine seasons of his MLB career — and the past three — with the Pirates. He was traded to the Giants in 2018 and finished that season with the Yankees before three seasons with the Phillies and one in Milwaukee.
This offseason, the Pirates agreed to a deal with Marcell Ozuna to take over at designated hitter.
In a since-deleted social media post in January, McCutchen pondered aloud why Pittsburgh didn’t extend him a contract offer the way other franchises had with one-time pillars of the team late in their career.
“I wonder, did the Cards do this to Wainwright/Pujols/Yadi? Dodgers to Kershaw? Tigers to Miggy? The list goes on and on,” McCutchen wrote. “If this is my last year, it would have been nice to meet the fans one last time as a player.”
McCutchen is a career .271 hitter over 2,262 games, which is the most among active players.
