Corey Seidman wrote a story at NBC Sports Philadelphia on Wednesday titled What does McCutchen need to do in final year to make $50 million contract a success?” It’s part of an offseason series looking at every single player on the Philadelphia Phillies roster. A Phillies “outlook,” if you will.

Andrew McCutchen, no relation to Lawrence, apparently wasn’t too keen on the story, or the headline at least. Maybe he read the article, maybe not, but gave this reply to the tweet from NBCSP’s official account:

“Y’all bored today huh?”

Nah, they’re not bored, it’s just something most outlets do in the offseason. Individual player reviews and stuff like that. It’s gonna be a long winter before pitchers and catchers report in February, assuming the COVID situation is relatively stable by then.

Of course, writing about McCutchen comes with a big asterisk. He was excellent pre-injury, then returned from a torn ACL at age 34 to play a pandemic-shortened season.

Corey does mention that in the story, writing:

So far, McCutchen has not quite lived up to the contract, mostly because of the injury, partly because the pandemic shortened the 2020 season and it wasn’t a stronger two-month run. He has been solid for the Phillies, no doubt about it, and he’s their best leadoff option, but for $50 million you’re hoping for a bit more, especially in comparison to the contracts of Brantley and Marcell Ozuna, who couldn’t even get a two-year deal last winter.

A strong final year with the Phillies would change the conversation about this contract. How strong? If McCutchen can simply replicate the 60-game start he was off to in 2019 pre-injury, when he hit .256/.378/.457, that would do the trick. He was one of baseball’s most productive leadoff men in the first half of ’19 and can be again in ‘21.

McCutchen has one year left on his contract, due $20 million this year before a fourth-year club option that features a $3 million buyout.

It’s tough to say he wasn’t worth the money, because he was the Phils’ catalyst pre-injury and the ACL tear is what it is. The Jean Segura rundown was deliberated ad nauseum on local sports radio and beaten to death, and maybe if Segura hustled down the line things would be different, but they aren’t.

So no, 34 year old post-ACL reconstruction McCutchen is not the same as 33 year old McCutchen. That’s a .757 OPS vs. .834, for a guy who only started 36 games in the field and got in some DH work during a wonky 2020 MLB season.

But the story was fair. They’re not bored over there; it’s a Phillies writer looking for Phillies things to write about, or else Corey would be doing nothing and wouldn’t have a job. You compile these offseason series, analyze the players, try to be creative, and blah blah blah. We don’t get the benefit of sitting around doing nothing on a Wednesday.

Plus, it’s not like the Phils have given us an amazing and intriguing on-field product this past season, and if they did, the stories would be the different and the interest would be greater.