At the beginning of the year, the expectation was that Andrew McCutchen would likely be dealt and be replaced by top prospect Austin Meadows. Through the first month of the season, that plan did not seem like it would come to fruition. Andrew McCutchen did not look like he would be rebounding from his troubling 2016, as he was hitting around the Mendoza Line most of April.
Meanwhile, Meadows was putting up numbers for the Indianapolis Indians that suggested he was not ready for Triple-A, let alone the big leagues. Through April, Meadows was batting a meager .