ANDREW McCUTCHEN sounded a bit overwhelmed.
"It all really hasn't sunk in for me yet," the All-Star centerfielder said yesterday after agreeing to a $51.5 million, 6-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. "It like when you're getting remarried and you are renewing your vows. That's how I feel."
Though he hit just .259 last year, McCutchen had career highs in home runs (23) and RBI (89) while stealing 23 bases. He would have been eligible for free agency following the 2015 season.
The 25-year-old gets a $1.25 million signing bonus, payable within 30 days of the contract's approval by Major League Baseball, and will make $500,000 this season. He gets $4.5 million in 2013, $7.25 million in 2014, $10 million in 2015, $13 million in 2016 and $14 million in 2017. The Pirates have a $14.75 million option for 2018 with a $1 million buyout.
McCutchen - considered the linchpin of a core group the Pirates are relying on to turn the club around - received the second-largest contract in franchise history behind Jason Kendall's $60 million, 6-year deal in 2000.
"Andrew McCutchen is one of the best young players in the game and we are very pleased to make this type of commitment to a great player and a great person," general manager Neal Huntington said. "It has been our intent for Andrew to be a cornerstone for this organization and this contract solidifies that intent for at least the next 7 years."
Steve Hammond, McCutchen's agent, credited both sides for making sure McCutchen will continue to be among the focal pieces to Pittsburgh's rebuilding process.
"We were working hard at this," Hammond said. "It was something Pittsburgh wanted and Andrew wanted. We found common ground."
Floating between leadoff and third in the lineup, McCutchen helped keep the Pirates in contention in the NL Central until late July last season.
McCutchen hit .286 in each of his first two seasons in the majors, and has 78 career stolen bases.
New York Mets lefthander Johan Santana returned to the mound for his first game against major league hitters in 18 months and pitched two scoreless innings as a split squad beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-6.
Santana walked his first batter on five pitches. But a single marked the only other runner against Santana, who threw 17 of 29 pitches for strikes.
The two-time Cy Young winner last pitched to big-league hitters on Sept. 2, 2010, in a game in Atlanta. Two weeks later he underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder.
"Finally I had an opportunity to go out there and finally get the first one out of the way," Santana said. " . . . I was excited about today. Even as I was preparing myself prior to the game, I was anxious to go out there and do it."
* Infielder Carlos Guillen, a three-time All-Star who played 14 major league seasons, announced his retirement.
Guillen was at the Seattle Mariners' spring-training camp as a non-roster invitee.
Last season, Guillen hit .232 in 28 games with the Detroit Tigers.
* Erick Hurtado, a 17-year-old Dominican pitcher signed by the St. Louis Cardinals last month and then let go, has been suspended for 50 games for a positive test under baseball's minor league drug program.
