Report: Industry evaluators believe Pirates will move Cole

The Pittsburgh Pirates might finally be coming to terms with trading their ace, as rival evaluators are under the impression the club is prepared to deal right-hander Gerrit Cole, according to ESPN's Buster Olney.

"I guess a natural transition is, if we were able to have an opportunity to utilize one of our starters - be it one of our young starters, one of our veteran starters - in a trade that we thought made the organization better, I would think that would make sense for us," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington told Adam Berry of MLB.com on day two of the winter meetings.

The 27-year-old, who is under contract until 2020, has garnered interest from the New York Yankees - a rumored landing spot dating back to the regular season. The Pirates ace is joined by outfielder Andrew McCutchen and utility player Josh Harrison as players who could be moved this offseason.

Cole is coming off a poor campaign, for his standards. He appeared in a career-high 33 games but performed to career-low 4.26 ERA and 4.03 FIP, while giving up 31 home runs - seventh-worst among qualified starters. Conversely, Cole had been remarkably consistent leading up to 2017, pitching to a combined 3.23 ERA (2.98 FIP) with 8.4 K/9 dating back to his rookie season.