Pirates, Yankees, White Sox reportedly discussed three-team trade involving Jose Quintana

The Pirates, Yankees and White Sox discussed a three-team trade involving Jose Quintana, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Joel Sherman of the New York Post, though, tweets that the Yankees are not currently involved in talks involving Quintana or (and?) White Sox closer David Robertson.

Nightengale doesn’t reveal the contents of those talks beyond Quintana’s inclusion in them, but over the weekend, FutureSox’ Brian Bilek tweeted that the three teams were discussing a trade that would send Quintana to the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen to the Yankees, and young players from both teams (including Tyler Glasnow from the Pirates) to the White Sox. Bilek isn’t an established reporter, so take those specifics with a grain of salt, but it now sounds like he at least was right that the three teams have talked about a three-way deal.

Nightengale’s tweet came just as I was writing my last post, which dealt with the Quintana rumors. My response then was to agree with Jon Heyman, who tweeted that the Yankees need starting pitching a lot more than they need an outfielder. I guess it wouldn’t be a shock if the Yankees did try to end up with McCutchen in a three-way trade, since they would presumably would have to pay less for him than they would for Quintana. McCutchen’s a big name, and the Yankees like big names.

Still, this deal doesn’t seem very likely. McCutchen’s contract (including his option) expires after the 2018 season, which is just at the point where the Yankees can reasonably hope to be really good again. If the Yankees are going to give up young talent, adding Quintana, who is controllable through 2020, makes a lot more sense for them than adding McCutchen does.

Then again, maybe the three teams discussed a deal that involved Quintana but not McCutchen. There’s a lot here that isn’t known right now.