While day one of the 2017 MLB Winter Meetings took awhile to heat up, the Pittsburgh Pirates found the various trade rumors around the team swirl more strongly as the day went on. What will day two hold?
The Pittsburgh Pirates laid low during the early throes of the first day of the 2017 MLB Winter Meetings.
By the end of the day, the club was at the center of the starting pitching trade market.
Sources told Pirates Breakdown last night that the Pirates went from “passive listening” as day one began to “listening intently’ by mid-day. As many as 8-9 teams did some level of checking-in on Pirates hurler Gerrit Cole.
Those same sources clued Pirates Breakdown in on what types of packages the club is looking for. By far, the two most serious teams in pursuit of Cole are the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins, and the packages from each are a little varied:
Hearing Miguel Andujar would be headliner in NYY/PIT trade
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) December 11, 2017
Source can confirm pirates have asked twins for Nick Gordon, Tyler Jay, and Zach Granite.
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) December 12, 2017
Yesterday, our twitter feed exploded with Twins and Yankees fans’ thoughts. Twins fans would seem to jump on the above proposal, while Yankees fans were a bit more split.
In either event, today should be very interesting.
What about Harrison and McCutchen?
In contrast to Cole, the various rumors surrounding Pittsburgh Pirates bats did not gain much traction on day one.
We’ve previously heard that both the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets were interested in Josh Harrison. Neither of those teams seemed to get serious about such a pursuit on day one. Andrew McCutchen‘s name was still batted around a bit, but only in regards to the pre-existing San Francisco Giants whispers.
Relievers? Anyone?
As FanRag’s Robert Murray noted, the relief market has been slow to develop:
Things heard today:
1) Relief market should explode in coming days. Some think we see 5+ relievers come off the board at Winter Meetings.
2) Hitting market is slow. Teams seem to be waiting for one of Eric Hosmer or J.D. Martinez to sign.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) December 12, 2017
In his press availability yesterday, Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington hinted that left-hander Steven Brault could find himself in the bullpen. From Liz Bloom’s story in the Post-Gazette:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Because of our depth, we would be comfortable with one or maybe even two of our young starters being in the bullpen to start the season because of the guys behind them,” Huntington said. [/perfectpullquote]The debate on where Brault would be most effective can still be heard, but for now, Huntington’s inclination to include Brault in the bullpen as a left-handed option could preclude the club from signing a left-handed reliever as most thought.
Stay tuned to Pirates Breakdown today for all of the Day Two happenings. Follow us on twitter for timely updates!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
