PITTSBURGH -- So much was made of the Pirates’ unexpected 20-8 start to the 2023 season, when they held sole possession of first place in the National League come May 1.

Andrew McCutchen was a part of it, and he doesn’t feel it was a fluke. But another impressive juncture of the season arguably told him even more about what might be to come in 2024.

McCutchen’s season ended on Sept. 4 when he sustained a partial tear of his left Achilles against the Brewers. By that point in the season, the Pirates had completed trades of other veteran players, including key contributors like Carlos Santana and Rich Hill. They had also long dealt with the effects of season-ending injuries to Oneil Cruz and Vince Velasquez.

Yet, the team rattled off a 13-11 record from Sept. 4 through the end of the season while facing a gauntlet of playoff-contending teams. The Bucs took two of three from the Brewers, two of three from the Cubs and two of three from the Reds. The Cincinnati series provided arguably the game of the year, as the Pirates erased a 9-0 deficit to win, 13-12.

What did it tell McCutchen?

“This is a good ballclub,” McCutchen said on Saturday at PiratesFest, “and that’s what I saw when I was just sitting back watching. I’m like, ‘Man, this is why I’m here. This is why I came back. This is what I see.’”

The late-season run reinforced a belief McCutchen has about some MLB teams: There’s a difference between a bad team and “a good team that puts itself in a bad situation.” The Pirates fell into that second group, as they struggled through the middle part of the season to regain the form they showed in the first month.

“It’s just finding yourself, knowing who you are as a team, going out there and producing and putting it on the field,” McCutchen said. “Once you do that -- you know who you are and you go out there and you play that way -- man, the sky’s the limit for us.”

The Pirates added 14 more wins in 2023 than they had in ‘22 while still anchored by a largely young, up-and-coming roster. By the end of the season, it was one of the youngest in MLB. But it still held its own and showed contending teams a glimpse of how soon Pittsburgh could be on that level.

However, McCutchen hopes that grit and drive from September gives the Pirates even loftier expectations in 2024. He saw the way the team didn’t make excuses about its youth, injuries, overall record or anything else. So there should be no excuses this time around, either.

“I want a championship,” McCutchen said. “The playoffs would be great. Being .500 would be great. But the ultimate goal is that. We have to look around and look at each other. We have to believe in that process.”

And who says it can’t be the Pirates? Look at what the D-backs did in 2023, knocking off the Brewers, the Dodgers and the Phillies to reach the World Series after being the last team to make the postseason in the National League. McCutchen pointed to them as an example of what’s possible.

“Sometimes we can lose sight of that because of the name on the back, or the stature, the homers,” McCutchen said. “At the end of the day, baseball is baseball. If you play it the right way, you’ll have a good chance of success. If we can do that, maintain that and be consistent in it, we’ll set ourselves up to do what we want to do.”

McCutchen won the NL MVP Award in 2013, but he wasn’t the only Pirate to receive an MVP vote. Who was the other?

A) Starling Marte
B) Russell Martin
C) Francisco Liriano
D) Pedro Alvarez

MLB has unveiled a new video format called Ballpark Zen that provides an extended peaceful ambiance background stream for fans to meditate, relax or work alongside. Six ballparks were featured in the launch, and a lit-up PNC Park at night is one of them. The YouTube video also includes chapters, so you can easily choose the ballpark, time of day or weather. Click here to watch the first installment.

• MLB Pipeline polled front-office executives from all 30 organizations about top prospects from around the Minors. Paul Skenes appears twice and Termarr Johnson also draws a mention.

• The MLB Pipeline team also picked one prospect poised to break out in 2024, and the Pirates’ selection is a very recent acquisition that we’ve barely begun to know.

• Still catching up on the latest moves after the holiday break? Here’s a refresher of every move made in the 2023-24 offseason.

B. Martin received one 10th-place vote after recording a .703 OPS with 15 homers in 127 games. Per Baseball-Reference, he had 2.4 defensive wins above replacement, second among MLB catchers behind only Yadier Molina (2.7), who finished third in the NL MVP balloting that year.

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