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