Alex Rodriguez rumors: Yankees GM Cashman denies Miami Marlins trade talk

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was quick to shoot down Wednesday's rumor that the team was in discussions with the Miami Marlins to trade third baseman Alex Rodriguez, reports Bryan Hoch of MLB.com:

Yankees GM Brian Cashman says a report of A-Rod discussions with Marlins is "not true."

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) October 17, 2012

The report of discussions between the Yankees and Marlins, initially reported by Keith Olbermann of MLB.com, were said to involve several scenarios, one including Marlins reliever Heath Bell and another with Miami taking on nearly all of the $114 million still owed to Alex Rodriguez over the next five years.

Despite the denial by Cashman, Olbermann is sticking to his guns, claiming that the GM "may not know about any of this" and that Cashman "doesn’t make all the deals and some of them they don’t even give him a much of a heads-up on".

While Olbermann may have his sources, making a trade when one's team is in the midst of the playoffs is unprecedented and seems highly unlikely. That is not to say, however, that talks will not pick up between the two teams during the offseason.