Andrew McCutchen is certainly making up for lost time. He didn’t start spring training with the Rangers, but he’s making up for the time he’s missed. 

The 2013 N.L. M.V.P has been in only six games. You could say he’s made quite an impact. After hitting a three-run homer as the Rangers DH yesterday, McCutchen is batting .533 with an OPS of 1.600.

If he was a young minor league prospect, those would be the kinds of numbers that would get a manager to say he’s opened eyes at camp as he’s sent back down. But McCutchen is thirty-nine, a veteran of seventeen major league seasons, and a five-time all-star. 

The staff at Rangers Rounding 3rd will painstakingly predict McCutchen won’t bat .533 for the season. But we do think he will make an impact, the kind of impact Joc Pederson was expected to, and failed to, make last season with his .181 batting average and .614 slugging.

McCutchen is Pederson insurance. And Pederson should be on a very short leash. 

While time will tell if he still has anything in the tank when the season starts, at least that tank has been filled in the past.

Here’s to a resurgent season from Andrew McCutchen. One more year in the sun. 

*****

Texas vs Milwaukee, 8:10