The Pirates anointed Nate McLouth as their starting center fielder Tuesday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Nate McLouth won the Pittsburgh Pirates starting center field job Tuesday, beating out Nyjer Morgan less than a week before opening day.

"A lot of players come to spring training and use it as a tuneup for the season, whereas I had to go out every day and do my best and perform," McLouth said.

Neither McLouth nor Morgan has previously owned a starting center field job in the majors.

McLouth, given the news shortly after the Pirates beat the Twins 7-3, is hitting .311 to Morgan's .228. Morgan has superior speed and baserunning ability and is better defensively, but McLouth has more power — he had 13 homers while hitting .258 in 329 at-bats last season.

"Nate swung the bat extremely well, and he gives you a dimension with the power he has, and he finished the year strong last year," manager John Russell said.

Russell, according to McLouth, didn't say much during the brief closed-door meeting in which the manager and GM Neal Huntington settled the only position player competition in the Pirates' camp.

"J.R.'s pretty straightforward. There were no jokes," McLouth said. "He just said, 'You're our opening day center fielder, congratulations,' and I said, `Thank you.'"

Morgan, who was excellent defensively while hitting .299 during a September call-up, wasn't entirely disappointed after being told he would be on the opening day roster.

"I'm extremely happy for Nate," Morgan said. "I'm going to come into a role I'm not used to, coming off the bench, maybe do some pinch running and come in as a defensive replacement. As long as I can be beneficial to this new regime and hopefully help the Pittsburgh Pirates get off the schneid, I say, 'Let's go, baby.'"

The Pirates, who open against the Braves Monday, have not had a winning season since 1992 — long before any of their current players began their major league careers.

Russell and Huntington weighed whether to send Morgan back to Triple-A so he could play every day. However, Morgan will be 28 in July, which is very old for a prospect, and they are convinced he is better off being in Pittsburgh.

"I don't want to downplay that we wouldn't keep Nyjer unless we thought he was going to get plenty of opportunities to play," Russell said.

Similarly, McLouth will be 27 later this year and, after being an occasional starter for three seasons, the Pirates want to find out what they have in him. He has a .249 career average in 284 games and has never hit higher than .258 in the majors.

"Those labels can be hard to break sometimes, they kind of follow you around," McLouth said of being stereotyped as a role player. "To now be in the position I'm in, it's definitely satisfying."