The Texas Rangers are reportedly signing veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen to a minor league contract, according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

McCutchen, 39, played with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2023-2025, his second stint with the franchise that gave him his MLB break. In 135 games last season, the 2013 NL MVP batted .239, hit 13 home runs and drove in 57 runs. It was the 13th of his 14 MLB seasons where finished with double-digit homers and the fourth season out of the previous five that saw him record at least 50 RBI.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

While McCutchen can play in the outfield, he's primarily been used as a designated hitter since 2022. According to Baseball Reference, the five-time All-Star has played only 20 games in the outfield since the 2024 season.

As Grant points out, what might make the right-handed McCutchen an attractive option at DH for the Rangers is his .799 PPS against left-handed starters in 2025. Veteran righty Mark Canha has been in camp this spring and has four hits in 14 at-bats while serving as DH. Joc Pederson, a lefty, is also on the roster and coming off a season where he batted .181 in 96 games with only nine home runs, 26 RBI and a .614 OPS.

Brett Davis via Getty Images

Should he make the team, the Rangers would be McCutchen's sixth MLB franchise. After beginning his career with the Pirates in 2009, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 2018 before being dealt again later that season to the New York Yankees. He signed a three-year contract that offseason with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Milwaukee Brewers were his next stop in 2022 before he returned to Pittsburgh ahead of the 2023 season.

McCutchen has played 2,262 career MLB games and has 332 home runs and 1,152 RBI.

The four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, 2012 Gold Glove winner and recipient of the 2015 Roberto Clemente Award said at the end of last season that he did want to continue playing, even if it wasn't in Pittsburgh — though he noted he wanted to retire as a Pirate.

“That’s the goal,” McCutchen said in September. “I’m not necessarily just here to be here. It would be good to have that opportunity but we’ll pass that bridge when we get there.”

Jason Benetti will be named NBC's lead play-by-play announcer for its Major League Baseball coverage, according to Front Office Sports.

Benetti, who is the current play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Tigers, will kick off the season on March 26 when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks. He will then settle in as the main voice of NBC's "Sunday Night Baseball" with a rotating cast of analysts from local broadcast teams.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

Prior to his time calling Tigers games, Benetti was the main television voice of the Chicago White Sox for eight seasons.

NBC won't be Benetti's first time in front of a national audience. Since 2022 he has worked as an announcer on Fox's college football, college basketball and MLB coverage. This also won't be Benetti's first time with NBC. He served as the lead voice of Olympic baseball coverage during the 2020 Summer Olympics and was part of the network's MLB "Sunday Leadoff" games on Peacock.

NBC has already announced that former MLB players Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto and Anthony Rizzo will serve as studio analysts on its broadcasts for 2026 and beyond. Longtime announcer Bob Costas will serve as studio host.

Last year, NBC struck a deal that will see it pay nearly $200 million per year for "Sunday Night Baseball," formerly of ESPN, and a "Sunday Leadoff" package, as well as the wild-card round of the playoffs. Peacock will be the exclusive home of many of those games, as its broadcast schedule lays out.