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Yankees, Pirates Reportedly Nearly Made Deal For Brad Lincoln

The New York Post reports that the Pirates and Yankees nearly made an unexpected trade involving Bucs pitcher Brad Lincoln and Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli.

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According to two Pirates sources, the Yankees came close to dealing Francisco Cervelli to the Pirates for pitcher Brad Lincoln. That would have cleared a spot for Montero.

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"It was very close but couldn’t agree on the value of the players,’’ a source said.

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Who knows if this is true, but it does have a ring of truth to it. With Ryan Doumit and Chris Snyder on the shelf and no obvious player to man the position in 2012 (and yes, Michael McKenry is a fun player, but he can't really hit), the Pirates were looking for a catcher who could play the rest of this year and next. Cervelli, unfortunately, is a bad hitter too, so I'm guessing that if the Yankees wanted Lincoln (who currently looks like a functional big-league starter), the Pirates wanted someone else in addition to Cervelli, and that's where the disagreement started.

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The Bucs might have felt that they could trade Lincoln because they have five healthy starters in their big-league rotation and Ross Ohlendorf on his way back.

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For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout. For more on the Yankees, check out Pinstripe Alley.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.