Before everyone decides to jump ship and throw in the towel on the season, let's asses the state of the Pirates. They managed to play significantly improved baseball in spurts this week as opposed to the previous two despite mustering only four wins. They started by getting swept by the Cubs for the second time this year. Taillon looked average, but you can't expect a rookie to do too much against one of the most lethal lineups in baseball. Monday, they managed to end their five game skid and against Bumgarner no less with a solid 1-0 win. Jeff Locke pitched a strong six and two thirds innings which was surprising, but then again, he's a wildcard. Tuesday's game and Wilfredo Boscan's performance were both abysmal. The third game of this series worried me not only for that game in particular but also for our season. They did everything right: they got to Jeff Samardzija early for six runs, Liriano pitched well enough that day to win, but the bullpen failed. Even when the broken parts work, they found a way lose. That's not characteristic of championship or even playoff teams. On Friday, Taillon didn't have his best stuff going, but the bats decided to show up for him and got the Bucs a win. Cutch and Locke led the way Saturday as the Bucs managed to finish the week 3-4. It sets the Pirates four and a half games out of the second wild card spot which may feel like familiar territory for an organization that once went 20 years without a winning season.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed a few days ago, I stumbled on an article whose source I cannot recall, that made a McCutchen trade seem pretty darn realistic and possible. I would like to touch on a few points he made in no particular order.

He touched on the fact Cutch is having a career low year with splits (BA/OBP/SLG) well below the MVP finalist numbers of his previous three campaigns. This would make this the easiest year in which he could ever be dealt. Losing the the face of the franchise, not to mention one who gives back regularly to the Pittsburgh community. It would be a tremendously tough pill to swallow for fans, myself included. It would show that the front office is ready to reload for 2017 but has put 2016 behind it.

If you have followed the Pirates in recent years, you have heard about how great the farm system is and have seen it come to fruition with the likes of Gerrit Cole and Gregory Polcanco. Well it might have a few more gems up its sleeve that would make dealing Cutch easier to accept. The young CF Austin Meadows is tearing up minor league pitching right now, but then again it is the minor leagues. He is no where near the caliber of a player that Andrew McCutchen is, but by next year he could foreseeably hold his own in the bigs.

Now, I'm not endorsing this possible trade, but if the offer included a starter that could fill the two or three spot in the rotation plus some other pieces that could help immediately, this trade might just. Knowing Neal Huntington, however, it probably won't.