"Andrew McCutchen has played very well and you could say he has been a surprise, though I don't know if anything he does can really be termed a surprise anymore," Littlefield said Tuesday. "He has had a very impressive camp but we just don't feel he is quite ready for the major leagues yet."
McCutchen is likely to stay in the major-league camp for another week before being assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis or Class AA Altoona.
This is the right decision - McCutchen has only played a handful of games above Low Class A, and anyway he's so young and so promising that it would hurt the Pirates to start his service time clock before he's absolutely ready.