Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte make up the best outfield duo in the Majors. One could argue that the two of them could cover the whole outfield by themselves. Both have speed, can steal bases, and hit for some power. The question is, which one is better.
This season, it seems that Marte could be creeping up on Cutch as the better player out there, but should you be surprised? I’m not. If you compare the two from their days in the minors Marte actually looks a bit better and in less time than Cutch.
Here’s a comparison of the players in the minors:
PA AVG 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SLG% OPS
Cutch: 2,223 .286 96 22 43 232 220 346 .423 .785
Marte: 1,994 .303 101 34 39 240 101 397 .462 .823
As you can see, Marte did more in the minors in less time than Cutch, but with less plate discipline as Cutch worked more walks and struck out less.
If any of you read last year’s SI article on McCutchen, you read that he had some offensive difficulty in AA. He would change his swing there and become the offensive power that you see today, so if you counted Cutch by what he did after that change then you would probably see similar numbers for both players.
Marte has too small of a sample size compared to Andrew in the majors to make any type of case, but during Marte’s time up here Cutch has had the better stats. One thing you can look at is Marte’s lead-off ability. He is batting close to .500 when leading off the first inning this season. He also has scored at a large rate once reaching in the first. You know who usually knocks him in? Andrew McCutchen.
Let’s look at their defensive abilities now. In the outfield, Cutch is a better fielder, right now. He can track a ball down like no other (except maybe Marte). He also seems to have that sliding catch perfected which makes him more effective out there. Through 47 games, McCutchen already has 5 outfield assists which is in the top 5 in the NL along with a perfect fielding percentage after making only one error last season.
Marte, on the other hand, has a total of two errors already this season and five in the 91 games he has played in for the Pirates. He does have 4 total assists during that time with the cannon for an arm that he has. Give him a full season in left and he will come into his own.
He, like McCutchen, can track down a lot of turf out in left which plays a key role with the North Side Notch being out there. McCutchen said at the beginning of the season that having Marte In left is a huge help to him; “It allows me to shade more into right-center because he can cover so much ground.” Like I stated earlier, if you put only those two out in the outfield, they would probably still track down every ball.
Again, as of right now, McCutchen is the better defender, but give Marte time and he should be right there with him.
After looking at the facts, it’s safe to say that Cutch is the best player out there, but Marte is slowly creeping up on him and should be on Cutch’s level in no time. I don’t think Clint Hurdle minds having two play-making centerfielders playing in the same lineup.
Instead of comparing the two, Maybe everyone should appreciate the overall power in the outfield the Pirates have, because having two 5-tool players in the same outfield is something that not many teams or fan bases can say they have.
Follow Travis for in-game updates and news @TBerardi_OVA or OVATravisBerardi@gmail.com.
(Photo Credit: Peter Diana / PG)
