Pirates reportedly seeking ‘MLB-ready’ players for Andrew McCutchen

Hey, more Andrew McCutchen rumors! This one comes from Jon Heyman:

pirates received nice offer of prospects from mystery team for mccutchen but seeks MLB now or MLB ready players. so no go.

This is weird if you believe that, as had previously been reported, the Pirates sought a package built around the way-not-ready-for-the-majors Nationals outfield prospect Victor Robles. I’m not sure who leaked the rumor that a “mystery team” offered a good package of prospects for McCutchen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Pirates’ estimation of that package wasn’t as high as the mystery team’s. If the Bucs did get a really good offer for McCutchen, my guess is that they would take it.

I think where we are right now, though, is that the Pirates previously wanted to trade Andrew McCutchen, or at least see what they could get for him. That isn’t the mode they’re currently in, though, now that they’ve seen that what they can get isn’t much. We’ve reached the point, I think, where a McCutchen trade before the start of the season would be pretty surprising.