Yankees Rumors: Gerrit Cole trade talk has reached ridiculousness

It seems every eight hours we receive an update that talks about Gerrit Cole to the Yankees are heating up. That is, until finding out no real movement has happened at all.

Will he or won’t he? That’s the central question regarding Gerrit Cole being traded by the Pirates to the Yankees. But after two full weeks of back and forth, with little to no movement resulting in a slew of nonsensical reports, I’ve had about enough.

Everyone has an opinion. And whether or not you agree with mine, is fine. I’ll continue talking Yanks on Twitter, and you’ll continue to be frustrated by the waiting game.

At this point, you’ve hopefully drawn your line in the sand in regards to where you stand on the possibility of trading a slew of prospects for the rights to Cole; who funny enough, was drafted by the Yankees with the 28th overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft.

A little before 9 PM on Thursday evening, the rumor mill starting up yet again.

First, it was Jeff Pasan, who stated that the Pirates were now highly motivated to deal Cole and that the Yanks were his most likely destination.

"Sources: The New York Yankees are working on a deal to acquire starting pitcher Gerrit Cole from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sides are talking, and while a final package has not come together, there is confidence. “A matter of when rather than if,” one source said."

Thirty minutes after that, Jon Heyman chimed in, that while the Yanks have always “loved Gerrit Cole,” a deal involving top prospect Gleyber Torres isn’t likely to materialize.

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"yankees have always loved gerrit cole, and maybe they work a deal eventually. but still hearing of one big holdup: pirates want gleyber to headline package, yanks want frazier to headline it."

Moments later, Pirates Breakdown reported that the Buccos were committed to asking the Yanks for Torres, Clint Frazier AND Chance Adams in return for Cole. Hey, why not throw in Justus Sheffield and a few monuments while we’re at it?!

Waking up on Friday morning, I was inundated with one Tweet after the other about how close a trade was.

This resulted in me having a mini-meltdown, exclaiming that the words probably, maybe, could and however, should never be used in conjunction with the phrase “talks heating up.”

Luckily, Heyman offered a bit of clarity with two separate tweets — the first saying that there had actually been NO POSITIVE MOVEMENT IN RECENT DAYS, which refutes all previous claims.

And then another nugget — that the Pirates are still asking for Torres, and that the Yankees aren’t inclined to that type of deal since other solid pitchers remain on the market.

If you need any further evidence that smoke DOESN’T always mean fire, Mark Feinsand reported that Thursday’s forward momentum of a deal was in fact, OVERSTATED.

Next: Trade idea: Ellsbury for Samardzija

I honestly feel like this could merely be the Pirates’ way of driving up interest in Cole. It’s a tactic that’s been used for years, and it’ll likely never cease.

But stew on this, with the shrewd moves that Brian Cashman has already pulled off this winter, do you really believe he’d be involved in this merry-go-round of ridiculousness? I think not.