Report: Yankees offered Mets multiple prospects for Bruce

The New York Mets traded Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night - but it appears Bruce could have very easily shifted to a different borough Wednesday instead of a whole other state.

According to multiple reports, the Yankees were very much in the mix to land Bruce from the Mets prior to Cleveland acquiring the 30-year-old Wednesday. Sources told Joel Sherman of the New York Post that the Yankees offered their crosstown rivals multiple prospects, but were only willing to pay "some" of the nearly $5 million remaining on Bruce's contract.

While it's not known exactly which prospects the Yankees offered the Mets, Newsday's Marc Carig reports they were two young players "other teams asked about at (the) deadline."

Had the Yankees completed the trade for Bruce, they apparently planned to use him as their primary designated hitter going forward, according to Sherman. But those plans appear to have been scuttled in a hurry once Cleveland entered the picture.

Instead of sending Bruce across the Triborough Bridge, the Mets accepted a lesser offer in terms of prospect capital from Cleveland. New York received Mets Single-A reliever Ryder Ryan - who was not ranked by MLB Pipeline as one of Cleveland's top 30 prospects at the time of the trade - while taking on all of Bruce's remaining salary.

Bruce had reportedly listed the Yankees as one of eight teams he could not be traded to without his consent.

The Yankees and Mets have only made 16 transactions together since 1962. They last completed a player-for-player trade with each other in December 2004, when the Bronx Bombers sent Felix Heredia to Queens for reliever Mike Stanton.