Phillies: Andrew McCutchen has (finally) started to find his swing again

Just under a month into the 2021 season, and it was starting to look like Andrew McCutchen had developed into a completely unusable player for the Philadelphia Phillies.

His defense out in left field was a downright disaster, and his batting averaged dipped as low as .154 following a game against the Rockies on April 24th.

For a player who’s being paid $20 million to be the Phillies go-to leadoff hitter, it was obviously a pretty bad situation to be in. It’s not like the team could cut or trade Cutch, Dave Dombrowski and Joe Girardi simply had to ride things out and pray that their left fielder could re-find his swing moving forward.

Luckily for everyone involved, it appears Cutch is slowly but surely getting back on track.

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Cutch is batting .290 for the Phillies since April 24th.

Since that before mentioned April 24th low point, Cutch has been hitting .290 (9/31) with five RBIs, three walks, three home runs, and six runs scored. He’s raised his batting average .44 points over the past nine games, and his two home run performance against the Brewers on May 4th marked the first time he’s ever hit two homers in a single game for the Phillies.

Needless to say, the former MVP has been playing some pretty good baseball as of late.

It’s also worth highlighting that Cutch’s recent bit of hot form came at a much needed time, as Bryce Harper has missed seven of the Phillies past eight games due to two separate injuries (face, wrist). The Phillies desperately needed someone to pick up some of the slack, and McCutchen did just that.

It’s way too early to deem Cutch “fixed” or 100% “back to his former self”, but the past few games for McCutchen have undoubtedly been a positive development. I myself was getting pretty worried that the Phillies were going to have to flat out bench him pretty soon here.

The Phillies have a rather important batch of road games up ahead in their schedule, and they’re going to need McCutchen to continue swinging a hot bat if they want to maintain their hold on first place in the NL East. Having that productive leadoff hitter genuinely makes all the difference in the world.