While the Mets seemed to be a match with the Pirates for a Starling Marte trade, Pittsburgh and New York ultimately never reached a deal.
In fact, the two sides were never close to one recently and talks died down weeks ago, SNY's Andy Martino reported Monday, echoing what he reported last Friday.
After the Pirates sent Marte to the Diamondbacks on Monday, reportedly for two prospects, Martino explained why the Mets didn't pull the trigger.
"Brodie Van Wagenen kind of got stereotyped in the Seattle trade as the guy that will always give up his prospects for an established major leaguer, but he's in a different place this offseason (than) he was last offseason -- and that's why this one never got off the ground at the same extent as the (Marcus) Stroman trade or the (Robinson) Cano trade," Martino said Monday on SNY's Baseball Night in New York.
"Brodie, at that time, was trying to build the Mets up at a major-league level and say, 'I want to create a team that has some buzz around it, I want to show the public and the clubhouse that I'm ready to win.' But in this case, Brodie was too happy with his farm system and the moves that he's made to try to build that up with the last draft and with a major league team where he just didn't feel like this was the player where it was necessary.
"But the Mets made a really aggressive push for Marte right after the new year. They were willing to offer some prospect talent, and perhaps some major league talent, but those conversations ended pretty quickly because they came away thinking the Pirates wanted a couple of top prospects or Brandon Nimmo or a Dom Smith. So honestly, at that point, I know there was some Twitter stuff the last couple of days about the Mets and Marte. But this thing died on the vine weeks ago because they were just asking for what the Mets considered to be too much."
Although the Diamondbacks reportedly traded only INF Liover Peguero and RHP Brennan Malone -- Arizona's Nos. 18 and 9 overall prospects, according to MLB Pipeline -- the Pirates apparently wanted more from the Mets for Marte.
In addition to Nimmo, the Pirates floated the Mets' No. 1 overall prospect -- SS Ronny Mauricio -- during the discussions. Martino reported Monday after news of the trade surfaced that the Pirates' asking price for the Mets was "unreasonable."
A one-time All-Star selection in 2016, the 31-year-old Marte's 2019 season was his eighth in the majors. In 132 games last season, he slashed .295/.342/.503 with 25 stolen bases, a career-high 23 home runs and 82 RBI.