The Pirates and Astros were close to a Gerrit Cole trade. Maybe. We think. No one knows.

The Yankees have been circling a Gerrit Cole trade all offseason. It would have filled one of their final needs for the offseason in adding another arm to the rotation. It would have added yet another probably-lopsided-but-we-won’t-know-for-sure-for-a-few-years trade to add to the list of deals between Pittsburgh and New York. It would have continued to make New York the only team actively making deals during this slow as heck offseason. Everyone (besides Yankees fans) would have been annoyed at the Yankees for at least the second time this offseason.

AND YET. None of that seems to be happening.

Because, according to Jon Morosi, the Astros were close to an agreement to get Cole from the Pirates. According to other reports like this one from Jerry Crasnick, the situation is a little more nuanced than that, or might not be happening at all. And even others, like Jeff Passan, are now reporting that it was an entirely false rumor from the beginning and is still only exists in fantasy form for both sides. Astros GM Jeff Luhnow is going full “don’t look at me we’ve got a lot of things in the hopper and you guys jumped to conclusions!” according to Brian McTaggart.

If the Astros do end up getting Cole and you look at the current state of the league, that wouldn’t be too different from the Yankees getting him. Because the rich are getting a little bit richer ... but it’s still better than the Yankees getting richer.

Without any details about (or even a whisper of) which assets could be going back to Pittsburgh in any deal, this would be a smart move for the Astros. Their rotation would then include not only Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel (which would be WOW enough for any major league rotation if you stopped there), but also Cole, as well as the rest of their World Series-winning rotation in Lance McCullers Jr., Charlie Morton, and Brad Peacock.

According to Morosi’s initial report, the Astros were working to get the deal done at this point in the week because Cole’s arbitration number hasn’t been decided yet. Since the filing deadline is this Friday, any trade after that would leave Cole’s new team negotiating based on the figures the Pirates submitted instead of submitting the numbers themselves. Not having to trust the Pirates’ instincts in arbitration is a good thing.

He’s under team control until 2020 and is in his second year of arbitration eligibility. MLB Trade Rumors is projecting his arbitration salary to be around $7.5 million or so, which is a major deal for Houston — or any team that lands him, honestly.

In five years with Pittsburgh, Cole had a 3.50 ERA and averaged 156 innings a season in 127 total starts. He also averaged a 112 ERA+ and a 1.217 WHIP. Cole’s ERA rose to 4.26 last season, a career high that exceed the previous season’s career high of 3.88 a year before.

But he also surpassed 200 innings on the mound for the second time in his career, is only 27 years old, and has only dipped below league average in ERA+ once in the last five years (a 99 in 2014, which barely counts).

Even if he wouldn’t exactly kick Verlander or Keuchel out of their spots in the rotation, Cole could be a top starter for the ‘Stros if that’s where he ends up, as they could really use another one even if all that means is they won’t go through another offseason praying to whoever they believe in to please make it so the back half of their rotation continues to pull amazing heroics out of nowhere so they can win narrow matchups.

If this deal goes through eventually the Pirates will then — oh I don’t know — probably have an open trade adoption with Cole so that they can still write to him and see how he’s doing while they focus on drafting and trading for other diamonds in the rough that they will eventually trade to the Astros or Yankees half a decade from now.