Pittsburgh Pirates star Andrew McCutchen will miss the remainder of the season after partially tearing his Achilles tendon during Monday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. McCutchen suffered the injury while he was legging out a double but initially believed he was fine, even tweeting as much. Alas, McCutchen will now be placed in a walking boot for six weeks, according to the Associated Press. There's no talk yet of him requiring surgery, though he has offered a follow-up tweet about his condition, concluding, "Dang this sucks."
McCutchen, 37 come October, returned to the Pirates last winter on a one-year contract. In 112 contests, he hit .256/.378/.397 (112 OPS+) with 12 home runs, 43 RBI, and 11 stolen bases (on 14 attempts). His contributions had been worth an estimated 1.4 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference's calculations.
McCutchen, who notched his 2,000th career hit earlier this season, has not signaled any intent to retire at year's end. Instead, he's suggested that he'll continue to play for as long as the Pirates -- and only the Pirates -- will have him.
"I'm not done," he told reporters over the summer. "Tom Brady said he would stop playing when he (stunk). I don't want to put it in the same context, but when my body tells me I've had enough, then I've had enough. My body is still saying, 'Nah, you're good. You're fine.'"
It's not clear if McCutchen will classify his partially torn Achilles as a sign that his body has had enough.
McCutchen, the 2013 National League Most Valuable Player Award winner, has appeared in more than 2,000 big-league games. He's homered 299 times and has tallied 48.5 WAR. Generally speaking, a player needs to clear the 50-WAR threshold to become a realistic Hall of Fame candidate. That's far from a hard-and-fast rule, however, and there are always exceptions to be made.