John Hickey squashes the latest scuttlebutt:
For one thing, the Pirates want starting pitching, specifically Pineiro, and the Mariners have precious little starting pitching to trade.
Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi wouldn't comment on the proposed deal, but two club sources said the Mariners had no talks with the Pirates about Wilson.
So we have one source "close to the front office" saying that the Mariners have been chasing Wilson for months, and two sources saying that they haven't so much as inquired about his availability. I'm inclined to believe the latter, because, well, the trade didn't make any sense for Seattle on any level. And even as far as baseless rumors are concerned, this one was a blatant violation of four of the seven rules of proper offseason rumormongering (scroll down to "An Offseason How-To", 11/11/04), suggesting that the guy who made it up never really meant for it to be taken seriously in the first place.
So that's the end of that. If the Mariners make any move within the next few days, it'll probably be for a backup catcher, since Rene Rivera really doesn't belong in the big leagues right now. As for Pineiro, I expect that the next time his name comes up, the rumor will have him being leased to Tacoma in exchange for someone younger, cheaper, and less talented. But that's still a ways away.