Mike Cameron might not be patrolling center field at the new Yankee Stadium next season after all.
At last week's winter meetings, the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees were reportedly close to a deal to send Cameron to New York for Melky Cabrera. Now, however, those trade talks appear to be "dead," Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said, according to MLB.com.
Melvin said he and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman haven't discussed Cameron since Dec. 11.
"We all have followed the Jake Peavy saga and the Rafael Furcal saga," Melvin said, according to MLB.com. "People have to be careful when they phrase deals as 'done.'"
At different points this winter, Peavy appeared headed to either the Atlanta Braves or the Chicago Cubs. But the right-hander is still a San Diego Padre and likely will be the team's Opening Day starter. And Furcal had agreed to a deal with the Braves, sources within the organization told ESPN.com, only to later agree to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On the Cameron front, "while I felt that it was a possibility of getting [a trade with the Yankees] done, there was never a point that either of us said it was done. ... [Cashman] had called me on an idea, and I got back to him with another idea, and we haven't heard from each other since. I assume what we're talking about is no longer alive, and that's fine. I'm not upset; that's just how deals are," Melvin said, according to MLB.com.
Melvin says he'd be content if Cameron was his center fielder on Opening Day.
"I'm happy to have Mike Cameron on our team," Melvin said, according to the report. "He's a good teammate, he's a good influence on our club and he's still a good player. We're happy to have him here, and I want to make sure that he knows he's not a guy I'm shopping around to other teams. I think Mike Cameron is a very valuable ballplayer to have on a team that wants to try and win."
Melvin said even if Cashman were to call to restart talks about Cameron, he might not be open to the idea anymore.
"I'm not necessarily shopping him," Melvin said, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "The Yankees had expressed interest. The only reason to do it was to regain some flexibility to pursue pitching. But the good pitching is drying up anyway."