Fire up the Jack Wilson rumor mill again

Yes! It's finally time to talk about the Hot Stove! The Pirates aren't likely to do a whole lot of interest this winter, but they're probably going to do something and the past few weeks have been brutal in their absence of Pirate news. On Sunday, the Detroit Free Press reported on the long-running "Jack Wilson to the Tigers" saga, which is unsurprisingly being revisited again this winter. There's not a lot of new stuff in that story, but I found this quote from Neal Huntington interesting:

At the general managers' meetings this month, Pirates GM Neal Huntington said, "If we get the right return, then we'd move Jack.

In a perfect world, you trade Jack for a young shortstop, but there may not be that scenario out there. We have to accumulate talent right now."

How often do you hear a GM talk about a player by name like that when trades are being discussed? I'll be shocked if Jack's back in Pittsburgh next year.

Right now the rumor that's been floating around the Wilson-t0-Detroit rumor is that the Tigers are looking to add a catcher this winter. Ken Rosenthal shot down a three-team rumor that involved the Pirates, Tigers, and Marlins and had Matt Treanor going to Detroit. My gut reaction is to say that the because the Pirates have good catching depth they would be stupid to let at third team get involved here, but the Tigers don't have much to offer beyond Rick Porcello, who they certainly won't be giving up for Jack Wilson and Ronny Paulino, so maybe the Pirates are looking to shop someone else to Florida in order to pull a better return here. I doubt anything happens before the winter meetings, but it's always something to keep an eye on.