Andrew McCutchen isn’t seeing many pitches in the strike zone, so the Pittsburgh Pirates designated hitter is sitting three home runs shy of 300 for his career in a season of milestone moments.

What McCutchen does have visions of is the makings of a team he believes can be a contender in the near future, which is why the 15-year major-league veteran didn’t want to be dealt at the trade deadline.

“Accolades and reaching those milestones are more milestone moments for other people, not really for me,” said McCutchen, who recorded his 1,000th walk, 2,000th hit and 400th double earlier this season. “It’s just another number to me. … It’s cool, but I’d rather win.

“A World Series is a lot more important to me than what I do personally. It means more to me here. I feel like I’ve reached a point of my career where you can chase a championship. I’m sure if I really wanted to, I could’ve requested to go to a contender. It doesn’t carry the same weight as it would if I’d have done it here. So I’d rather do it here.”

The 36-year-old McCutchen, who signed a one-year, $5 million contract to return to the Pirates in January, has stated he wants to play beyond this season and would love to finish his career with the Pirates. McCutchen said “the elephant in the room has already been addressed” with club officials and “the ball is in their court.”

“We’d love to have him back,” Pirates ace Mitch Keller said. “He’s probably one of the coolest baseball players and one of the coolest teammates I’ve ever been around. He’s just a great guy to have around. He knows the game. He knows what it takes. He’s been through a lot of seasons — a lot of good seasons, especially here — and I think that’s really important, because he knows what it takes to win here. We’d be thrilled to have him back. I hope they really do sign him back. He’s irreplaceable, honestly. You can’t replace that kind of guy.”

A five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger and 2013 NL MVP with the Pirates from 2009-17, McCutchen has experienced both a 100-loss season (105 in 2010) and three consecutive wild-card playoff berths (2013-15), as well as two divisional rounds, first with the Pirates in 2013 and again with the New York Yankees in 2018.

McCutchen leads the Pirates with a .378 on-base percentage and 64 walks, is second with 85 hits and third with 10 homers. He hasn’t gone deep since June 30, however, and his batting average has dipped from .287 to .258 since then. That the Pirates have been without Oneil Cruz since he fractured his left ankle April 9 has played a part in opponents pitching around McCutchen, especially in the 22 games he’s batted leadoff.

Cruz’s eventual return to the lineup is a major reason McCutchen believes the Pirates will be better next season. McCutchen cites their 20-8 start to the season as proof they can play at a high level, given that the Pirates were in first place in the NL Central through June 15.

More recently, splitting four-game series against a pair of first-place teams in the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves is a sign the Pirates have continued to be compete even after trading veterans Ji-Man Choi, Rich Hill and Carlos Santana at the deadline and playing between three and six rookies in the starting lineup.

“We’re a good club. People got hurt. Guys are still young, still trying to figure it out. It is a learning curve. You’ve got to go through those things to learn how to get better or adjust,” McCutchen said. “It’s a good ball club here. A bad team isn’t a bad team when they’re beating really good teams. A bad team loses all the time. We’re not a bad team. …

“It’s just about having the consistency behind what we do, having the belief behind what we do and having experience behind what we do and staying healthy. You mix all of that together and, man, you’ve got a really good ball club. We have our moments, but we’ve got to be more consistent and that’ll be here sooner than other people think.”

McCutchen wants to be wearing black and gold if and when the Pirates become a contender again, just as he was the last time they made the playoffs. The Pirates hoped his confidence would be contagious, and will take that into consideration in whether to re-sign McCutchen.

“It means a lot,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. “When we signed Andrew in the offseason, a big part of his interest in coming back was he saw a future and felt like the team could be more competitive than we were last year — and we have, just not by enough — and so if he or, honestly, anyone down there felt confident that we were getting better that does mean a lot because ultimately the players on the field usually know. We’d hope that all of our players feel that way, that there’s a strong future. Of course, he’s been through that.”

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