It appears the Cubs are now in on the Gerrit Cole trade rumors, too.

According to FanRag Sports, the Cubs have talked with the Pirates about acquiring the 27-year-old starting pitcher.

cubs are a third team that's talked about gerrit cole lately. yanks and astros have more prospects, which may give them an edge. but pirates wouldn't mind getting MLB players back, too.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 12, 2018

Earlier this week it looked like the Cole rumors would end as MLB.com reported the Pirates and Astros had agreed on the terms, which would have sent the former No. 1 overall pick to Houston.

However, those rumors wound up false, and the Astros did not acquire the top-end starter owner Jim Crane seeks.
Now, the doors are open and other teams are getting involved like the Cubs. Chicago does not have the prospects of the Astros, or the Yankees who have also been highly active in talks for Cole, but what they do have is a lot of MLB-caliber players and not enough spots in their lineup.

With guys like Addison Russell, Ian Happ, Kyle Schwarber and Javier Baez all vying for positions, the Cubs don't have the room to play all of them every day. It's a tough thing to deal with as a team, but a valuable asset in trades.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has said the team would look into trading players from the MLB roster in October and this would be an instance where it could be the right move.

Whether one or two major leaguers is enough to get Cole remains to be seen, but the Cubs do have some good prospects even though they traded most of their top guys for Jose Quintana and Justin Wilson over the summer. Adding one or two of those guys to the discussion could get a trade done. The Pirates have reportedly asked for three top prospects in return for Cole.

Guys like Alex Lange and Brendon Little could tempt the Pirates as both are big-bodied guys with power arms