Notes: Cole finishes fourth in Cy Young voting, Walker trade talks

Gerrit Cole finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting Wednesday night. Cubs ace Jake Arrieta won, followed by Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw. There was no right way to call this race, as any of those three were deserving. 

Mark Melancon also received five fifth-place votes. Full voting breakdown is here. Astros lefty Dallas Keuchel won the AL Cy Young.

The MVP awards are announced Thursday. I had an MVP vote and will post my ballot, with explanation, here after the results are announced. The broadcast begins at 6 p.m. on MLB Network.

According to Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun, the Pirates and Orioles discussed a trade involving Neil Walker. This took place during the GM meetings. Walker is one of three 2017 free agents, in addition to Pedro Alvarez and Mark Melancon, that the Pirates are listening on. That term is a bit of a misnomer -- every team listens on every player; some conversations just go further than others. But the Pirates have motivation to move one or more of them to reduce the amount owed in arbitration.

Neal Huntington alluded to the possibility of moving each one when he went on KDKA-FM 93.7 the Fan morning show Wednesday. He said Walker’s return is not really tied to Jung Ho Kang’s recovery timetable; that they are exploring all options at first base, including Michael Morse as the everyday guy and also bringing in a full-time guy and making Morse a righty bench bat; and that they felt very good about Tony Watson closing. 

What’s interesting about the Orioles’ interest in Walker is that they already have a second baseman: Jonathan Schoop, a 24-year-old who has not yet reached arbitration. Schoop hit at least 15 homers for the second consecutive year and had a .482 slugging percentage to go with a .279 average in 2015, but his staunch refusal to take a walk (23 in 817 career plate appearances compared to 203 strikeouts) gave him a .306 OBP in 2015. But the Orioles are losing Chris Davis in free agency, so it is possible they view Walker as an answer there.