Yeah a lot of the "might have been" deals make for good stories, but they aren't always as close to fruition as the stories make you believe.
Ruben Mateo as a centerpiece was once thought to have been enough to land Roger Clemens.
There's always the story the Yankees tell about how when Texas was given the choice between Arias or Cano that they somehow tricked Texas into thinking Arias was better choice because they knew Cano was a stud... Which begs the question if they really knew, why was Texas even given the opportunity to choose him?
Much like I believe the Mets claiming that Texas' offer for A-Rod was $100m more than they were offering and Texas was just "bidding against themselves"... Yeah, Boston was willing to give Manny Ramirez $20m/year for 8 years but the next highest offer for A-Rod was the Mets offering a max of $15m/year for 10 years? Uh huh, sure.