Brewers liked Ike, but not at Mets' price

PITTSBURGH -- Ike Davis, the power-hitting first baseman linked to the Brewers all winter in trade rumors, made his Pirates debut against the Brewers on Saturday night at PNC Park.

The Brewers ultimately signed veterans Mark Reynolds and Lyle Overbay to fill first base, but not before general managers Doug Melvin of Milwaukee and Sandy Alderson of the New York Mets spoke multiple times about Davis, beginning at the November General Managers Meetings and extending past the Winter Meetings in December.

The sides never got close to executing a trade, according to Brewers assistant GM Gord Ash.

"We talked, but their 'asks' were well beyond what we were willing to do," Ash said.

The request was always a young starting pitcher, including 25-year-old right-hander Tyler Thornburg. The Brewers declined because Thornburg was ticketed for their starting rotation at the time.

He was ultimately bumped when the Brewers signed free-agent starter Matt Garza, but Thornburg has thrived in the bullpen, retiring 21 consecutive batters over seven outings before Andrew McCutchen connected for an RBI double in the Brewers' win on Friday.

On Saturday, Davis was wearing No. 15 for the Pirates, batting sixth.

"How about that?" Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. "It's a good opportunity for him. I don't know what the Mets were doing over there, how much Ike was going to play, but he was a guy Doug talked to me quite a bit about.

"He'd be pretty interesting for anybody, I'd think. I don't know what happened last year; I just read in the paper that he had an oblique thing going on [in 2013, when Davis' numbers were way down]. And if that was it, he should bounce back. He's a good defender, and from what I understand, he's well-liked on the team, so there's a lot of things to like about him."