With the Winter Meeting off to a fairly quiet start in terms of moves for the Pittsburgh Pirates, rumors persist around pitcher Gerrit Cole
Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington has said he is open to trading a starting pitcher and without a doubt his biggest chip is Cole, who is still controllable for two more years.
We’ve documented that the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees have shown interest.
Now you can throw the Seattle Mariners into the mix as well. Pirates Breakdown has learned that the Seattle Mariners have had some level of discussion with the Pirates over Cole, though the Mariners are clearly the third leg in the race. Their interest has been described as to us as “introductory” at best.
Why Cole?
While Pittsburgh Pirates fans may not feel that Cole is “ace” like, he is still a very good pitcher who is in his prime. Cole didn’t have a great season in terms of the long ball, allowing 31 dingers on the season.
Despite a career-worst 4.26 ERA, Cole did a lot of good things in 2017 that gives hope for potential buyers that he will regain his 2015 form and become a dominant top of the rotation pitcher. Finally healthy, Cole made 33 starts last season, the most in his big league career. He also threw 203 innings, eclipsing the 200 IP mark for the second time.
The fastball velocity was there, averaging 95.9 mph on the season, the third highest mark in the majors. That also led to a nice strikeout season a Cole fanned 196 batters.
While Cole gave up a lot of hits, the league only hit .252 off him, a big drop from the .282 in 2016. His WHIP also dropped from 1.44 to 1.25 this season so those are positive trends. As was the BABIP which dropped from .345 in 2016 to .298 this year. While the Bucs came out slow out of the gates and Cole only started 2-5 through May, he really didn’t pitch all that bad, posting a 3.60 ERA in April, followed by a 3.68 in May.
He really showed flashes of the pitcher who finished fourth in the CY Young voting in 2015 with a month of July that saw him finish 3-0 in five starts with a 2.25 ERA.
There were enough positive signs that should make teams line up for Cole, should the Bucs be serious about dealing him.
Are the Mariners a good trade partner for the Pittsburgh Pirates?
The Twins and Yankees can both throw some good prospects the Pirates way, but what can Seattle offer?
At the MLB level, Kyle Seager would look real nice at third base for the Pirates, but that’s just a pipe dream. He’s financially out of the Pirates league.
Outfielders Mitch Haniger and Ben Gamel are both controllable through 2022 and you can almost guarantee one would be targeted by the Pirates. Of the two I like Haniger better.
In terms of pitching at the MLB level, James Paxton is very attractive, but there’s no chance the M’s would part with him. Tony Zych is a decent relief option that would come cheap, but the Bucs would be more in need of left-handed relief help as they have a good bit of right-handed relievers at the moment. That is unless they could get Seattle to take Daniel Hudson‘s contract as well.
In terms of prospects, there’s a big problem making a trade work.
The Mariners lack even a mid-tier farm system, so putting together a trade for a controllable, legitimate starting pitcher like Cole seems a bit far-fetched.
Outfielder Kyle Lewis and RHP Sam Carlson are among Seattle’s best to offer and both are a couple years away from the MLB level.
There’s a couple intriguing options amongst Seattle’s Top 30, but nothing that jumps off the page and screams must get in a trade.
If Huntington was going to deal with Seattle, it would likely be for a young outfielder like Haniger, a top three prospect like Carlson and maybe something like 19-year old third baseman Joe Rizzo, who is currently the Mariners No. 8 prospect for 2018.
It wouldn’t be the worst return, but the Twins and Yankees match up better as trade partners.
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