BRADENTON, Fla. — Moments after several major leaguers stepped off the field to conclude the first day of voluntary offseason workouts Monday at Pirate City, Gerrit Cole was mentioned in another trade rumor.
According to Jeff Passan, lead baseball writer for Yahoo!, the defending World Series champion Astros have engaged with the Pirates in trade talks for Cole, who is under contract through 2019.
Neal Huntington, who is at Pirate City for the week-long minicamp for young major leaguers and prospects, declined to speak to reporters Monday morning, but at least one player in attendance expressed frustration about the trade rumors involving Cole, Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison.
"It is what it is," Trevor Williams told DKPittsburghSports.com. "When you're a fan, trade rumors are fun. This isn't fun when you're in the middle of it and it affects you. That's part of the business, though. ... Some of it is all talk. Everyone knows what the Winter Meetings are. Some guys just talk to kickstart their offseason. Nothing is set in stone until it actually happens."
Passan's report came a little over an hour after Astros owner Jim Crane told reporters that his club is actively pursuing a high-end starter.
This isn't the first time Cole has been mentioned in trade talks. It was Passan who reported last month that the Yankees and Pirates engaged in trade negotiations involving Cole, adding that Pittsburgh was 'motivated' to deal its ace.
However, those talks seemed to stall during the holidays, and the Yankees reportedly began to express interest in free-agent starting pitchers, including Yu Darvish. But Cole is a cheaper option — he's projected to make $7.5 million through arbitration in 2018 — and is still only 27 years old.
The New York Post reported that the Pirates asked the Yankees for either shortstop Gleyber Torres or outfielder Estevan Florial in any trade involving Cole. Both prospects are thought to be untouchable, though.
According to Passan, one player included in negotiations between the Astros and Pirates is Derek Fisher, a 24-year-old outfielder who made his major league debut in July. Fisher, a left-handed hitting corner outfielder, batted .212/.307/.356 with five home runs and 17 RBI in 166 plate appearances for the Astros.
A first-round pick in 2014, he hit 21 home runs with 66 RBI and a .318 average in 84 games at Triple-A this season. Following 2016, he was ranked as the club's No. 9 prospect by Baseball America.
He would fit one of the organization's needs, outfielder, but Passan reported that Fisher would not be the centerpiece of a trade for Cole. Instead, any deal would likely be centered around either outfielder Kyle Tucker or right-handed starting pitcher Forrest Whitley.
Tucker, 20, was a first-round pick in 2015 and split this past season between High-A and Double-A, batting a combined .274/.346/.528 with 25 home runs and 90 RBI. It was enough for MLB Pipeline to rank him as the Astros' top prospect entering the offseason.
Whitley, 20, was a first-round pick in 2016 and finished this past season in Double-A, allowing only three runs in 14 2/3 innings with a 0.81 WHIP.
Trading Cole would signal a significant rebuild for the Pirates, as they would also likely trade McCutchen and Harrison. The Mets are reportedly interested in both players, although their farm system is viewed as one of the worst in Major League Baseball.
McCutchen, meanwhile, is still being targeted by the Giants, as Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported last week. But would the Pirates trade their ace when he is two years away from free agency?
The first overall pick of the 2011 draft, Cole has thrown at least 200 innings in two of the past three seasons, including 2015 when he was named an All-Star. Cole was limited to 116 innings in 2016 because of injuries.
He returned in 2017 with a 1.25 WHIP in a career-high 33 starts — 12 more than his injury-shortened 2016 season — and had the second-highest strikeout total of his career while ranking third in the National League in innings. Additionally, he averaged 8.69 strikeouts per nine innings with a 3.1 fWAR — the second-best mark of his career.
But Cole allowed 1.37 home runs per nine innings — the seventh-worst mark in the National League — including at least one home run in 21 of his starts to finish with a 4.26 ERA which, according to ERA+, was 1 percent better than the league average.