In a move that shakes the ice off the hot stove, the Pittsburgh Pirates have reportedly traded star pitcher Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros. However, there are conflicting reports on whether a deal is actually done.
According to Jon Morosi, the trade is done and has been gaining momentum since yesterday. Morosi also pointed out that Gerrit Cole's salary arbitration case is still pending for 2017, so the Astros wanted to finalize the trade as soon as they can to file their own case instead of the Pirates.
However, Jeff Passan is reporting however that there is "no deal" and that the trade is a "false rumor." So perhaps Cole isn't on the move to Houston after all.
Ken Rosenthal has also just tweeted out that the deal is no longer close as he previously reported. He claims a deal remains possible, but not in its' present form
It is unclear what happened to the prospective trade. As of now, neither Cole nor his agent have been alerted to any trade, so the trade may have fallen apart right at the end. Pittsburgh was looking for a return from the Atros consisting of OF Derek Fisher and/or 3B Colin Moran.
Cole had a below average year in 2017 by his standards, posting only a 4.26 ERA in 203 innings while striking out 196 batters. While he is only entering his age 27 season, he is now two years removed from his best season where he went 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA while coming in 4th in the NL Cy Young race.
We will update this article with the details of the trade as they come in.
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