The Yankees and Pirates have been discussing a deal that would send A.J. Burnett and cash to Pittsburgh for two minor league players. Four teams are in on the right-hander, but the Yankees seem to prefer the Pirates. Here are the details from yesterday, and here are Monday's rumors:
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post hears the Yankees would do the deal if the Pirates took on more than $13MM in salary (Twitter links). So far the Pirates are offering $10MM in salary relief and two "blah" prospects, but there's a feeling the deal will get done.
- The Yankees and Pirates are still discussing the deal and it'll probably be completed, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets. It seems likely that the Pirates will take on $13-15MM of the $33MM remaining on Burnett's contract and give up two non-roster players.
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It seems likely that the Pirates will take on $13-15MM of the $33MM remaining on Burnett’s contract and give up two non-roster players.”
I’m fine with that.
question to anyone if we eat salary does that count towards our payroll for luxury tax purposes?
It still goes against the yankees payroll but its not as much as it would be the yankees keep him. just wish they would say who the yankees are getting in return. atleast 1 of the players have to be agreed on.
If we eat salary? You know for darn sure the Yankees are eating some of that salary lol.
Pretty sure whatever the Pirates pay does not count towards the Yankees payroll so it wouldn’t count toward their luxury tax purposes.. Therefore their salary will decrease by about $6 million, but will go right back up when they sign a DH.
ok just was unsure if the tax paid attention to just contracts on the roster or j how much we spend in general
I can’t guarantee that though. I can easily be incorrect.
You got it right. They were just discussing this yesterday on MLB Radio.
I can’t guarantee that though. I can easily be incorrect.
and i knew that we were eating salary but a more general question that I always had, but have a relevant topic to ask about it haha
Whatever portion of the payroll the Pirates pick up gets charged to the Pirates and comes off the Yankees side of the ledger for MLB luxury tax purposes.
ok fair enough so it pays attention to general spending as opposed to the contracts on the roster
Any chance of that 15-23 million towards Burnett going to effect the chances of resigning Cutch long term or even Walker for multiple years?
are either one of those two a free agent before the end of the 2013 season? cause if not then no it wont effect it because AJ is a FA after the 2013 season
No one to blame but himself. Should’ve pitched better.
He didn’t put them on his 10 team non-trade list.. so he can’t be that upset. or he’s firing his agent, like yesterday.
He didn’t put them on his 10 team non-trade list.. so he can’t be that upset. or he’s firing his agent, like yesterday.
apparently it was all west coast teams on his NTC
He also probably didn’t anticipate the Pirates being willing to take on some of the money he would be owed. Shocks me honestly.
they must be pressured to spend that profit sharing money. AJ and Pittsburgh makes no sense let alone paying 10mil for him
The fact that the Yanks are getting anything from Burnett is a small miracle.
nah. he’s not good, but he’s not that bad either…until you compare him to his contract. comparing him to his contract is what everyone in NY rightfully does, but by this point people confuse ‘awful value’ with ‘awful pitcher’. he’s only one of those two things
aaron harang got 2/$10 this offseason. chris capuano and bruce chen got about the same. joe saunders makes as much in a year. if that’s what PIT is paying for burnett, they’re doing pretty well by market standards
Just because Aaron, Chris, and Bruce got $10 mil didn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake. Those were bad contracts. Pittsburgh is not the type of team that can absorb bad contracts. Especially with profit sharing, Pittsburgh should use the money wisely and spending 7-10 mil for a pitching down in his career is not a smart move. If AJ is not worth the money for the Yankees, he would not be worth that money anywhere. I’ll give AJ at most 5mil.
“i can’t read” (paraphrased)
then this reply won’t help you. but for everyone else: aj burnett, at his worst, is worth $5M per year. he is likely to be better than his worst in pittsburgh. paying him 2/$10M is not a mistake by any rational standard
Those were Ned Colletti contracts, that’s what they were.
The fact that the Yanks are getting anything from Burnett is a small miracle.
AJ really hasn’t had a bad career, 121-111 in 12 years with a 4.10 ERA and a world series championship. Better lifetime stats than Don Larsen. Plus he probably made over 100 million dollars.
The only reason he made over 100 million dollars was because the Yankees gave him a horrible contract. I’d probably put it in the top 5 worst pitching contracts ever. But I’d still say Hampton’s was worse, possibly Zito’s also
Most free agents are overpaid and can’t meet expectations. Baseball is a business and players get market value. Contracts today really have nothing to do with performance. Teams gamble on pitching because they need it to win. It’s a crap shoot.
Nah, you also got Jason Schmidt and John Lackey. I’d even say Oliver Perez’s contract was worse, because he provided absolutely 0 value for it. There’s plenty more. I’m not even sure if he’d be in the top ten. Might even put Kei Igawa’s in there, if you factor in the posting fee. You also have Chan Ho Park, Darren Dreifort, Denny Neagle, Carl Pavano, etc. Plenty of truly awful contracts there.
AJ really hasn’t had a bad career, 121-111 in 12 years with a 4.10 ERA and a world series championship. Better lifetime stats than Don Larsen. Plus he probably made over 100 million dollars.
” Better lifetime stats than Don Larsen”
Made a career out of 1 game. Johnny Vandermeer out of 2.. amazing how many there are like that.
would you rather have a mediocre career, but get remembered forever for one magical night, or simply a good career that fades in the background? serious question, and not really pushing people either way
Would you rather be Wes Welker or Mario Manningham.
would you rather have a mediocre career, but get remembered forever for one magical night, or simply a good career that fades in the background? serious question, and not really pushing people either way
It’s unfortunate, because a player like Billy Buckner was really a good player! It really becomes random.
LOL. Yep.. I thought of him also..
Going back to that play… people wouldn’t even remember him had not Bob Stanley, Calvin Schiraldi etc.. melted on the mound.. Billy Buck was just the end loser and lets not forget the sure handed Geddy’s past ball…
It was a total team efforted failure…
The worst was Donnie Moore who commited suicide.
Posted above.
13-15 is too much if they’re giving something up in return.
I think so too, but I’m pretty sure if that deal is correct, the players they get are probably on a scale of 1-10, rated -10.
I think so too, but I’m pretty sure if that deal is correct, the players they get are probably on a scale of 1-10, rated -10.
Opinion of this deal will have to wait to see what prospects are involved. However with the Bucs picking up even more cash tells me that prospects are most likely C prospects.
I’d say F minus prospects.
Even better
Not sure why the Yankees, according to yesterdays rumors, were more concerned about what players they get back. Truthfully I think it’s best to get Pittsburgh to pay as much as possible than to pay as little as possible and get medicore prospects. I think that trade that’s posted is a good deal. If they can get the Pirates to pay $13-$15 mil, whether they get players back or not, I think is a good deal for the Yankees.
The Yankees probably want to avoid seeming as though they’re making a salary dump without getting any return. It’s like Selig pointing to Interleague play and the wild card to fool people into thinking he’s done something positive as commissioner.
Cashman is just trying to get the best deal possible under the circumstances. The Yanks are eating alot of money any way you slice it. Yanks are able to do this because of the money they make each year. It was much worse for a team like the Mets when they dumped Perez. The fans were happy, so it was a popular move, but in reality you are just throwing away 15 million.
i think Burnett is getting under-rated this year probably because of the nyy media or whatever. his xFIP last year was his best since going to the yanks, for example. the k’s are still there despite his slight decrease in velocity on the fb.
i think it would be cool to see him and teams think about converting him to a lights-out closer for the next part of his career, like they used to do prior to the 90s. he’d probably have a better chance at a big contract that way than as a team’s back-end starter.
Whatever……A.J. sucks and so do The Pirates. This deal is nothing…
Tell us how you really feel 😉
The Pirates aren’t serious contenders this year, and probably not next year. They have very little to gain by acquiring a has-been like Burnett. Why would they take on $10 million with their tiny payroll. That’s absurd.
The Braves were only able to get Cleveland to eat $5 million in the Lowe trade. Lowe’s results were awful last year, but his peripherals were much better than his ERA or W/L. He seems like more of a bounce back candidate than Burnett, and Lowe only has one year left on his contract. A one year for flyer on a guy like Lowe for Cleveland seems like a much smarter move than a two year commitment to a head case like Burnett.
Its hard to feel sorry for the Pirates when they are so terribly awful with the little money they do have.
They actually have quite a bit to gain. If he puts up good numbers in the first half of the season – similar to what Correia did last year – the Pirates have a nice little trade chip on their hands.
AJ Burnett: 190.1 IP, 3.86 xFIP, 1.434 WHIP, 3.9 BB/9, 8.2 SO/9
Derek Lowe: 187 IP, 3.65 xFIP, 1.508 WHIP, 3.4 BB/9, 6.6 SO/9
With Burnett moving to the NL, I’d rather take my chances on an improvement there. This is a very smart move for the Pirates. Very little risk – as even if he shows no improvement at all, he is still an upgrade to the #5 spot in the rotation.
No one has mentioned this yet but I wonder if MLB is putting spending pressure on the Pirates? Because they have really been trying to spend 10-13 million more this year. A 50 million dollar floor maybe?
The usual suspects in terms of purging payroll had a lot of activity this offseason. I’m starting to think the same thing. Though not all of their moves were very good, and some may have looked forced, the Marlins, A’s, Pirates, and Rays added some pieces to their roster this year. Nice to see.
Ill give him a ride to Pittsburgh.
I think the Pirates are trying to be competitive this season. With Pujols in LA and Prince in Detroit, the Cardinals and Brewers are both weaker teams. The Cubs and Astros are not going anywhere, and the Reds are the only team who have shown improvement. Plus, if Burnett succeeds and the young players make some progress, the Pirates could surprise some people.
I might be one of the very few Yankees’ fans that doesn’t want to see AJ traded. Yes the contract has looked bad the last 2 years, but he was a huge piece of the 2009 championship, and he wasn’t pitching that bad the last month or so last season (don’t forget his start in the ALDS). Their other option when AJ signed was Derek Lowe, and I’m so happy the Yankees went after AJ instead of Lowe (Lowe’s stats in the offensively inept NL are worse than AJs haha). I also feel that AJ will have a better season than both Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes.
Then you can give us Phil Hughes, I’d prefer that 🙂
Burnett is a sunk cost at this point with their starting pitching depth. The Yankees have the resources to dump an underperforming guy with two years left in his deal, so why not do it?
Right now, they have plenty of SP depth with CC, Nova, Kuroda, Pineda, Garcia, Hughes, and the top prospects in the minors. If they can find a way to scrape up some extra cash to put the finishing touches on their roster, they have to do it.
I agree with
MurderersRow27 sentiment in that I also think he’ll do better than Garcia & Hughes. I believe he’ll continue last year’s strong finish. The adjustments really panned out for him. Though I think it’s best for him to be traded. I would love to see him bounce back in the yankee uniform, but hate for him has reached a point where it’s counter productive. Not easy to play in that environment. In a way it reminds me of crawford. If he has a mediocore to bad year in 2012 for the sox than he’s in trouble.
As for Hughes. With his velocity dropping 5-7 mph from game to game or even within the same game, he’s going to continue to struggle. I see him more as a reliever.
Pitching is very difficult to predict, Hughes could be another Ian Kennedy. He was over pitched two years ago when he won 18 games, ( Verducci list ) which hurt him last year. I would expect a good year from him as a starter this year.
The fact that Hughes doesn’t have a good secondary pitch makes it that much more difficult for him to have a good year. He mainly has the fastball. Even in his 18 win season when he lead the league in run support & didn’t have great numbers (but had his wins), his pitches would get fouled off a lot because he had no out pitch. If his fb isn’t working he has nothing. As seen by his games against Texas in the playoffs.
That’s why he’ll have more success as a reliever. I like Phil & root for him. But after watching what happens when his velocity dips & no other pitch to go to, the writing is on the wall for him. He has tried to learn various pitches, slider, curve, cutter. They come and go & he’s always working on that elusive 2nd pitch. His change up is not worth discussing either.
Meanwhile, Nova has 4 pitches already. He learned the slider last year. It was taught to Hughes who couldn’t get it (no surprise).
That
Hey Pirates! Look around and realize nobody else is bidding for the guy. Stand your ground. In fact, drop a million off your offer every day the Yankees say no. The 1 percenters can eat the money. You shouldn’t.
But the Yanks, and NY papers, are saying 3 other teams have interest. That there’s only a 50/50 chance they trade Burnett etc. Scott Boras can’t be the only one feeding John Heyman information.
Anything more than $5 mil a year and the Yanks should start adding prospects. The more money they want the Pirates to eat, the better the prospect. Yanks are saving 1.5 times the money the Pirates take on. Make them give you something for helping them…
Watch out for the mystery team!
IMO that’s why the deal hasn’t been finished yet. the most I’ve seen the pirates willing to offer is 10mil and two zero impact prospects. if we don’t get him were a 90+ loss team and if we do that number may be lowered by a couple so we really don’t have any reason to rush this deal. this deal could work out very nicely for the pirates at the right price but overpaying even a little doesn’t make sense for a team with such a thin margin of error
When did the word ‘outlier’ replace ‘anomaly’ among the trend following folks?
Bautista was once concidered to be a “blah” prospect in the Pirates system…
The Mets drafted him and let him go, sometimes players just develop later. Off the subject, look at Victor Cruz and Lin.
I’m pretty sure Pirates drafted him, gave him up in Rule 5, went to a bazillion other teams in Rule 5, and eventually got him back in a trade
Before we all bash the NL Central, unless i have Alzheimers, wasn’t the Cardinals & Brewers playing against each other in the NL Championship series? Last time i checked, they were both NL Central teams. Let’s not be so quick to diss the division. Sure Fielder & Pujlos are gone, but the Central has always been getting slammed and i think it’s unfair.
well apparently considering that the Pirates, Cubs, and Astros (for this year) are also in the NL Central, that makes them the worst division ever. apparently.
The reports say that as many as 4 teams are bidding for him.