Over the course of his storied profession, Andrew McCutchen has stood there and watched ball 4 go by 1,075 instances. I watched one thing like 750 of these pitches on Thursday, after which I minimize them down into supercuts. I hope to God I by no means to see one other ball 4. I used to be awaiting one thing particular. I observed the opposite day that McCutchen flips his bat quite a bit, which caught me off guard. In the event you’re a Pirates fan, I’m certain you understand precisely what I’m speaking about, however I think individuals exterior Pittsburgh is perhaps startled by it, too. In any case, McCutchen is a veteran who tends towards a extra conventional taking part in fashion. That’s to not say that he performs with none aptitude or that he doesn’t have a humorousness (he definitely does), simply that he’s on the staid facet of issues. In truth, in October of 2017, McCutchen tweeted his disapproval of the development.
The difficulty will not be that McCutchen has essentially modified his thoughts. He doesn’t actually flip his bat when he hits a house run. He’ll do it on uncommon events, however more often than not, he handles his homers with a quiet cool. He finishes his house run swing one-handed, with the bat held low, and he merely drops the bat head towards the bottom and lets go of the deal with in a easy continuation of that transfer. It’s a basic look, and although it’s laborious to think about that McCutchen doesn’t know he appears to be like cool whereas he’s doing it, it doesn’t come off as an affectation.
As an alternative of house runs, McCutchen flips his bat when he earns a stroll. I’m not the one individual to note this. A Ke’Bryan Hayes fan account began a Twitter thread of McCutchen’s bat flips again in Might of 2023, including a video every time he did it for the following two weeks. In July, the Pirates posted a compilation video on TikTok with the caption, “Both pitch to Cutch or threat getting bat-flipped on.” If you concentrate on it, for somebody who actually loves bat flipping, the stroll is the right time. To begin with, nearly everybody walks extra typically than they homer, which implies extra possibilities to occasion. Second, whereas a stroll is sweet for the batter and dangerous for the pitcher, it’s not a large enough deal that the pitcher will really feel such as you’re rubbing their nostril in it. Third, nothing is anticipated of the batter after a stroll. There’s no threat of flipping your bat dramatically after which realizing that it’s best to have been operating across the bases as a result of the ball isn’t carrying such as you thought it might.
That mentioned, McCutchen does flip his bat after a stroll so constantly that he really runs into the same drawback. On shut pitches, he positively needs to flip his bat. But when he isn’t certain whether or not he’s going to get the decision, he’ll feign confidence by beginning towards first base. Nonetheless, the bat belies his obvious certainty. Fairly than tossing it as he usually would, he merely carries it with him in case the pitch is dominated a strike and he’s known as again to the plate, generally hunching over a bit like a child who’s afraid he’s about to be yelled at. As soon as he does get the decision, he finds himself trapped within the tiny farce created by his false confidence. It’s too late to toss the bat, so he merely walks over and fingers it to the bat boy as if that was his plan all alongside. If his workforce is within the third base dugout, there’s no bat boy to obtain a handoff, so McCutchen merely takes sufficient steps to make it seem to be he wasn’t awaiting the result of the umpire’s name, then stops and bends over, as if the purpose of the little jaunt was to put the bat in a sure location, like there’s this tremendous cool patch of grass he observed earlier and thought the bat would actually take pleasure in it.
McCutchen didn’t begin his profession flipping his bat throughout walks. I do know this as a result of I watched each ball 4 that McCutchen took from 2016 to 2024, after which I went again additional. As a result of walks don’t often make spotlight reels, I scoured YouTube for full-game movies of Pirates video games from 2009 to 2015. When I discovered one, I’d verify our sport logs to see whether or not McCutchen drew a stroll that day. If he did, I’d verify Baseball Reference’s play-by-play web page to see when within the sport it came about, then I’d skip across the video till I discovered it. All of that is to say that I’m wanting ahead to having a pleasant, lengthy relaxation this weekend. Right here’s the second stroll of McCutchen’s massive league profession, an intentional stroll, together with one minor bat flip that he did in 2010. It was the one actual instance of a bat flip that I may discover earlier than 2015.
Watching all these movies, I began to wonder if the individuals who make McCutchen’s bats are conscious that he treats them so roughly. Certainly bat makers will need to have some opinion concerning the product they work so laborious to design and manufacture. I made a decision to name Louisville Slugger to ask about it. “You already know, I don’t know,” mentioned a really good girl named Linda. “You’ve reached our bat guarantee division.” Apparently, the primary quantity on the Louisville Slugger web site sends you to the improper individual fully. Oh effectively. There’s positively one bat firm that doesn’t thoughts: Chandler bats, which is owned by famous bat flipper Yoenis Cespedes.
Alternatively, I additionally observed that McCutchen doesn’t appear to be focused on displaying the pitcher up in any respect. He doesn’t look out on the pitcher or again on the catcher. He’s additionally conscientious about his bat flipping. Even when he tosses the bat fairly far, he goes out of his approach to toss his shin and elbow guards to the identical spot in order that the bat boy who has to choose all the pieces up doesn’t need to make a number of journeys. For McCutchen, I think about it’s a bit like a sport of bocce. Toss your bat, then attempt to land the physique armor proper subsequent to it.
As of late, McCutchen flips his bat continuously. Over the remainder of this text, I’ll take you thru how, through the years, his craft has blossomed into one thing really spectacular. In the event you’re sufficiently old to recollect Dave Winfield, you additionally keep in mind that he was the participant probably to make you understand {that a} baseball bat was a mere piece of wooden. In his huge fingers, and subsequent to his 6’6” body, the bat regarded like a toothpick. Right this moment, McCutchen is the participant probably to remind you that the bat as soon as was and shortly once more shall be nothing greater than kindling. In contrast to Winfield, the 5’11” McCutchen doesn’t achieve this by advantage of sheer mass; he does so by executing his bat flips so typically, so effortlessly, and with a lot fashion that you just begin to assume that the remainder of the sport is incidental to the tossing of the lumber. He’s continuously including to his arsenal, and after 11 years within the massive leagues, he could make all of the throws. Like all true artist, McCutchen is continually taking part in with the shape, continuously reinventing himself. It looks as if every year he comes up with one other approach to toss the bat, one other approach to reinvigorate the act and maintain would-be opponents off his tail.
Even earlier than he began flipping his bat repeatedly, McCutchen liked to make a meal of inside pitches, dramatically tossing his bat any which method each time the ball felt shut sufficient that he may fairly justify some histrionics. The primary of those clips is from all the best way again in 2011.
When McCutchen was actually feeling theatrical, he wouldn’t simply dodge the ball and toss the bat away. He’d elevate it clear over his head and toss it in a single movement, letting it land proper behind his ft, like he was attempting to determine easy methods to to the alternative of chopping wooden.
In 2016, McCutchen began bat flipping ball 4 in earnest, however just for a short while. You understand how generally you utilize a curse phrase and it simply feels superb, so then for the following week you go on bender, cursing far more than you’d usually? McCutchen acquired caught up within the bat-flipping equal of cursing for a restricted time. In August, he began taking part in with a bat flip of his personal invention. As he began towards first base, McCutchen would toss the bat a couple of inches within the air together with his left hand, then swat it towards the dugout together with his proper hand. I name the transfer the Ping Pong Serve.
Nonetheless, he rapidly stopped flipping his bat by the tip of the month. By the September got here round, not solely was he not flipping his bat, he gave the impression to be taking nice pains to place it on the bottom as softly as humanly potential. He would gently place the bat behind him, touching the pinnacle to the dust first, then bending over to drop the knob from the bottom top he may. Given the remarks he’d make the next season, once you watch the tape, it nearly appears to be like like he’s attempting to atone for the sins of August, like every further ounce of care is an act of penance in a model new, bat-based faith.
In 2017, the 12 months he demanded that the sport purify itself from the insidious corruption of bat flipping, McCutchen practiced what he preached. I’m not going to point out you any video, as a result of the whole season would simply be a montage of McCutchen gently inserting his bat on the bottom. He did flip his bat a pair instances throughout one highway journey in Might, however other than that, he actually did stroll the road. Nonetheless, he additionally appeared to sow the seeds of his future flips. He began flicking his bat head downward rapidly, solely to sluggish himself down and lay it gently on the bottom. The present flip is seemingly only a continuation of this ancestral ur-flip.
Every little thing modified in 2018. It was a 12 months of upheaval for McCutchen. Fairly than let him stroll on the finish of the season, Pittsburgh traded him to San Francisco in January. However the Giants by no means even reached three video games above .500 they usually flipped McCutchen to the Yankees on the deadline. Initially of the season, McCutchen was on his greatest habits. Maybe he was attempting to make impression on his new metropolis, or maybe after so a few years as a Pirate, he was relishing the prospect to lastly dwell on the suitable facet of the legislation. Both method, as soon as he took ball 4, he positioned the bat on the dust with the identical loving care you’d use to put a new child child on the dust, if that had been a factor that folks did. After which on the finish of April, with the Giants mired 5 or 6 video games again within the division, he had one other quick bout of the flips. Nonetheless, he largely recovered his decorum after a couple of weeks, and went again to babying the bat.
In August, one thing snapped. Proper when the Giants fell all the best way to twenty video games again within the NL West, McCutchen’s true bat flipper lastly got here out. He was shoving the bat towards the primary base dugout and flipping it behind him towards the third base dugout, effortlessly sending it pinwheeling throughout the sector like, effectively, a pinwheel I assume. The bat flips grew much more intense in New York. Andrew McCutchen was formally a bat flipper. Beneath is each ball 4 he took in 2018 in chronological order. You’ll be able to watch him begin out subtly, dabble in the dead of night artwork of bat flipping solely to again away, chastened, then lastly bounce in with each ft.
McCutchen signed with the Phillies in 2019, and though accidents restricted him to only 59 video games, he ran a career-high 16.4% stroll price and flipped his affected person coronary heart out. He additionally picked up a brand new signature bat flip, going all in on a transfer he’d began utilizing with the Yankees the 12 months earlier than. In a motion that’s just like taking pictures craps, McCutchen would merely shove the bat straight out towards the primary base dugout with little to no spin on it. As a result of he was merely pushing the bat, it wasn’t actually tumbling, and the viewer was actually in a position to admire the best way it landed with a satisfying bellyflop thud.
Throughout the quick 2020 season, McCutchen began including a little bit little bit of English to the toss, backspinning the bat simply sufficient that it might rotate 180 levels, and subsequently getting the very best of each worlds: tumbling finish over finish whereas nonetheless touchdown flat with a thud.
McCutchen continued added to his bag of methods in 2021. These methods additionally began getting extra showy. First, he’d drop the bat abruptly after taking a borderline pitch. It’s a present of bravado that shares some DNA with the Soto Shuffle: I’m so sure this pitch goes to be known as a ball that not solely am I going to place down the bat and head to first base, I’m going to mic drop it. By the way, he additionally did this as soon as in 2010, lengthy earlier than his bat flipping days started.
Second, he began flipping the bat a shorter distance, generally a yard or two previous the left-handed batter’s field, generally straight into the field, proper in the meanwhile ball 4 handed him by. He was particularly keen on doing so when the pitch was inside, proper beneath his fingers. Of all of the bat flips in his arsenal, this is perhaps the one that would most simply be construed as displaying the pitcher up. Though it’s not as fancy or theatrical, McCutchen tosses the bat straight in entrance of the eyes of the catcher, pitcher, and umpire with an alacrity that calls for consideration. Generally the catcher is about to throw the ball again to the pitcher, and has to cease his movement to be able to keep away from hitting the bat. Initially, McCutchen would type of push the bat upward with each fingers, like a cartoon character who’s carrying a stack of presents too massive and unwieldy to set down, so they only tumble all of them onto a chair.
Later in 2021 and thru 2022, McCutchen began getting a bit extra distance on the toss and releasing the bat extra rapidly. On inside pitches, he’d rotate away from the pitch, then flip again and launch the bat in the identical movement, as if turning away from the pitch was really simply the loading mechanism for his bat toss. It’s a bit foolish, attempting to show a defensive response into one thing that appears deliberate and pure, but it surely’s additionally one of many ways in which nice athletes make even probably the most mundane acts look sleek. The actual grace, although, belongs to the bat, which hits the bottom and dances with the hypnotizing unpredictability of a kite within the wind.
Final season was the massive 12 months, as a result of McCutchen was again with the Pirates. In Pittsburgh, the house dugout is on the third base facet, and since the customer’s dugout is on the third base facet in most different stadiums, the overwhelming majority of the time he may execute what grew to become his signature transfer: flipping the bat behind him with a snap of the wrist. McCutchen had been training this for years, beginning in 2016. This supercut, which is roughly chronological, reveals McCutchen honing this talent over time. He wasn’t but a grasp. Generally he’d try and flip it together with his proper hand relatively than his left, to combined outcomes.
McCutchen actually perfected the transfer final 12 months, flicking the bat with informal disdain and a stunning mixture of velocity and spin. Generally he wouldn’t even look behind him as he threw it. Generally he’d emphasize the wrist movement on the final second like a basketball sharpshooter holding their kind after a pure three pointer, imparting an additional jolt of backspin.
Sending the bat flying out of the body, it tumbles throughout the sector like Ozzie Smith on Opening Day, eliciting very practically the identical quantity of pleasure. It’s a factor to behold. Sometimes, he turns the bat at an angle, in order that relatively than tumbling, it helicopters its method towards the dugout.
And that virtually brings us updated. Beneath is a supercut of all of McCutchen’s walks from this season. He hasn’t proven something fully unprecedented simply but. We’ll simply need to see what improvements he brings because the season progresses.
