Ken Rosenthal has reported that talks between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees on a Gerrit Cole trade have cooled.
Pittsburgh Pirates fans’ consternation with the team’s front office will likely gain steam after Ken Rosenthal’s report that talks between the Yankees and Pirates on a potential trade for Gerrit Cole have cooled.
#Yankees’ talks with #Pirates on RHP Gerrit Cole have cooled since winter meetings, sources tell The Athletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 20, 2017
Pirates Breakdown previously heard exactly the same thing and reported as much:
I'll label these as whispers for now, but hearing that the Yanks are cooling on Cole…fluid situation
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) December 15, 2017
When we tweeted that out, we had heard from industry sources that talks had cooled, but that the situation was still very fluid. Those same sources today tell us that the teams have continued to talk since leaving the meetings, but they took a different tone in recent days once it became clear that Pirates GM Neal Huntington would not budge off of his asking price. What seemed very close to a consummated trade during the meetings has now tapered off.
At this point, it would appear that the Yankees are balking at meeting that price.
The debate rages
This, of course, will spark a huge debate over Pittsburgh Pirates fans and observers alike. As a small market GM, Huntington feels the need to “win” every trade, even though a theorized trade package centered around NYY OF Clint Frazier and a high-level pitching prospect would surely be labelled as a Pirates victory by many.
On the other hand, with no real impetus to trade Cole now, the Pittsburgh Pirates might in fact have to work to win the trade rather than just make a move for the sake of it. The Pirates will still have four theoretical chances to trade Cole — the remainder of this offseason, the 2018 trade deadline, the subsequent offseason and the ’19 deadline — over the next two seasons. Thus, the club is certainly in no rush and can afford to slow-play Cole’s trade market.
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