Yankees: Revisiting the Failed Gerrit Cole Trade With Pirates in 2017

The New York Yankees nearly traded for Gerrit Cole after the 2017 MLB season, and likely should’ve.

The Yankees wanted Gerrit Cole in 2017. Come to think of it, the Yankees had Gerrit Cole in 2008, theoretically, for a few weeks. But the Gerrit Cole trade that nearly materialized at the end of the ’17 season was the closest they came to acquiring the ace prior to the 2019 offseason homecoming.

Instead, Cole went to (shudders for the remainder of the offseason) Houston for a package that didn’t come close to equaling what the Yankees were supposedly asked to surrender, in an experience that will always be an embarrassment.

The Cole-Yankees talks were beyond substantive in December 2017. In fact, Jeff Passan — now the league’s foremost insider — called them a question of “when, not if” in a tweet as the conversations materialized. While both sides were split on the compensation ask, there was no doubt this was poised to be a major deal. Early rumors had Pittsburgh demanding Gleyber Torres as the package’s highlight, with the Yankees countering with Clint Frazier, a much more realistic trade chip, but still a potent one.

As the holidays came and went, a deal still hadn’t been consummated. While we all know now how Cole’s 2018 and 2019 seasons went, he wasn’t a known commodity back then — he had a serious gopher ball problem, allowing 31 homers with a 4.26 ERA in that ’17 season, easily his worst. New York wanted two seasons of Cole, sure, but they didn’t want to part with Torres, Estevan Florial, peak Justus Sheffield, or…Miguel Andujar to get it done. As rumor had it, Pittsburgh insisted on including Andujar in the deal, meaning both Frazier and the third baseman of the future would be involved.

Then, on January 13, New York collectively gasped and retched, as we all realized we didn’t want to overpay for Cole, sure, but we still wanted him. When he went to Houston, our chief rival (sorry, Boston, your 2018 “entirely legitimate” breakout season hadn’t happened yet), for such a minuscule price tag, Twitter popped off. Instead of Frazier and Andujar, the Pirates settled for Joe Musgrove (now their comparative “ace” and trade bait, go figure), starting infielder Colin Moran, and prospects Michael Feliz and Jason Martin (crickets…).

The Yankees’ package was better. Houston got the girl.

Luckily (major exhale), the Yanks were the team that ponied up the money to finally make a homecoming happen in 2020. Gerrit Cole wears pinstripes now, and whatever titles may have been prevented by his absence from the roster these past two seasons, he didn’t win any rings in Houston, either.

These trade talks were madness, torture, and bluster, and two years later, they’ve finally been undone.