McCutchen indicates 2009 Pirates didn’t always feel like "one team" due to non-stop transactions

Andrew McCutchen knows there will one thing different about spring training this year when the Pirates convene in Bradenton, Fla., next month.

“Everyone won’t be looking over their shoulder anymore,” the center fielder said. “We have our team now.”

General manager Neal Huntington totally remade the Pirates last season, trading away six players from the starting lineup. He then allowed closer Matt Capps to become a free agent last month by declining to offer him arbitration. Thus, Huntington says the days of non-stop transactions are done.

“You’re never going to be in a situation in baseball where you never change your 25-man roster but the major changes are over,” Huntington said. “We’ll tweak here and there when the need arises and I think that it’s important for the players to know that this is now our team. For the most part, who is here now is going to say here. We’ve been through a lot of instability in the last year and I think everyone can relax a little bit now, put the distractions of last season behind them and concentrate more on playing baseball.”