The Yankees have spoken to the Pirates about trading for right-hander Gerrit Cole and plan to keep talking, but no deal was imminent as of Friday, according to a source.
The Yankees and Pirates have a long history of making trades, and the sides would seem to have the right ingredients for an eventual deal. The Pirates want salary relief (Cole made $3.75 million last season and could double that in arbitration), and the Yankees have prospects to spare.
One report said the holdup was the Pirates wanted the package to be centered around top Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres. Since general manager Brian Cashman has traded his second baseman (Starlin Castro) and third baseman (Chase Headley) already this offseason, it seems unlikely he would part with the multi-talented Torres.
The Yankees would much prefer to part with outfielder Clint Frazier, who has no role with Giancarlo Stanton in the fold. The devil is in the details, and baseball people would not be surprised if the Yankees and Pirates eventually reach common ground on a trade. There's also a chance the Yankees could seek to expand the deal to include infielder/outfielder Josh Harrison, an All-Star last season who could play second or third in the Bronx.
Cole, who went 12-12 with a 4.26 ERA in 2017, was the Yankees' first-round pick (28th overall) in the 2008 draft. But he spurned the Yankees and went to UCLA before becoming the No. 1 overall pick by Pittsburgh in 2011.
Cole is 59-42 in his five-year career. His best season was 2015, when he went 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young award voting.
The Yankees already have five starting pitchers in Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, CC Sabathia and Jordan Montgomery.
In recent years, Cashman and his Pirates counterpart Neal Huntington have completed deals involving Francisco Cervelli, A.J. Burnett and Ivan Nova.
