The Pirates announced that they have signed right-hander A.J. Burnett to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that the Frontline Athlete Management client will receive an $8.5MM guarantee (Twitter link).
Burnett, who turns 38 in January, spent the 2012-13 seasons with the Pirates and revitalized his career in black and gold while helping the Bucs to end a historic playoff drought. However, the Pirates declined to make him a qualifying offer following that season and didn’t feel they were able to offer him a salary commensurate with his market value, which proved to be true, as he signed a one-year, $16MM contract with the Phillies. That contract contained a mutual option that vested as a player option, but Burnett turned down a guaranteed $12.75MM from the Phils to take $4.25MM less and return to Pittsburgh — a team and environment of which he spoke fondly even after his departure.
After posting a combined 3.41 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 393 1/3 innings as a Pirate, Burnett struggled in Philadelphia, posting a 4.59 ERA in 213 2/3 innings. Burnett’s walk rate spiked while his ground-ball and strikeout rates dipped, resulting in the inflated ERA and an NL-worst 18 losses (though the Phillies’ poor team performance obviously impacted that last number). Burnett pitched the entire season with a hernia that required offseason surgery — another likely factor in his 2014 struggles.
Burnett will return to a Pittsburgh rotation that faces the potential losses of both Francisco Liriano and Edinson Volquez, who are now free agents. He’ll slot in behind Gerrit Cole and perhaps Vance Worley and Jeff Locke, though the Pirates figure to be active in seeking to add other experienced arms to the 2015 rotation. A return to the Pirates could boost Burnett’s performance, as the move will again pair him with pitching coach Ray Searage and an infield that is known to be above the most aggressive in baseball, in terms of shifting (a welcome sight for Burnett’s ground-ball generating arsenal).
One question for Burnett is whether or not he will again be throwing to the talented Russell Martin, who is a free agent as well and is expected to be too expensive for the Pirates to retain. The Bucs recently acquired Francisco Cervelli from the Yankees, who could pair with Chris Stewart to form this year’s catching tandem for manager Clint Hurdle if Martin is not retained.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He must of hated to play in Philly to take almost half the contract
Either that or he wanted to play for a contender again.
No one could have said that five years ago.
Or 3 years ago.
Philly is a bit of a mess at the moment. Going to be a few years before they are able to contend again. This could be Burnett’s last year. He appears to thrive in smaller markets. This is a perfect fit for him – small market team that can compete.
What he was a Yankee small market what?
Yes, and he didn’t thrive there. So the OP’s comment makes sense
He told his agent to only negotiate with the Pirates, it’s where he wanted to be regardless of money.
Glad he’s back in PIT, but why did he bother signing with PHI last season?
Money.
Which is why he turned down almost double what he’s getting with PIT, right?
It’s possible his priorities changed after a year. Didn’t sound his Philly experience was a happy one.
My guess is that he regretted that decision. I’m actually shocked less guys do this. I could only imagine playing for a losing team for 9 months is just miserable. I would take a discount to avoid that situation if I was already making that much
Live and learn, really. Didn’t realize he’d miss the ‘burgh so much. 🙂
I don’t think it was that he wanted more money so much as he felt low-balled by the Pirates organization when they only offered him $8million last year. Between that, his twitter controversies, and not getting the ball for game 5 in the playoffs… he had a chip on his shoulder. He’s clearly an emotional guy that speaks his mind (which got him into trouble) and he felt slighted by the club.
well that was totally unexpected
That’s for sure. And he took a pay cut to come back to the Pirates. Maybe Russel Martin will also!
So it isn’t all about the money?
Turns out not playing for the Phillies is more important than money
Phillies are also very happy to not have to pay him $12+ M.
That money saved is going to be well spent on someone that will make them a contender….not.
Did anyone say that? But it can be spent on pieces that have a better opportunity to be flipped at the deadline – thus improving their team 2-3 years down the road.
Is your faith based on Amaro’s competence (who I might remind you brought over AJ in the first place)?
The same Amaro who flipped half a season of Roberto Hernandez for 2 decent prospects? Look, he’s pretty bad when it comes to huge deals – but he’s actually done well in his tenure when he works with smaller trades.
The only large trades that were bad both involved Hunter Pence who we should have never traded for to begin with. The first Cliff Lee deal, the Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt trades worked out fine. It is the extensions mandated by David Montgomery and lack of young MLB talent that has hurt us.
I’ve got him at 3-for-6 on “major” trades. Wins were for Cliff Lee, for Roy Halladay, and for Roy Oswalt. Losses were away Cliff Lee, for Hunter Pence, and away Hunter Pence. So, basically, he’s .500 on major trades (with the “scales” tipped a little more toward under because 3 of the last 4 have been losses). I am in the party though that sees him as not the “worst GM in the history of sports”. And do believe that ownership plays a bigger hand than some would like to think.
I would not hold the second Cliff Lee trade against him as I believe ownership forced him to make that trade since we signed Halladay in 2010. The Phillies owners had a golden opportunity to go back to the World Series and they blew it. Cliff Lee would have pitched much better than Joe Blanton in SF and probably forced a Game 7 in Philadelphia in 2010.
The problem isn’t those trades, but rather the complete unwillingness to recognize a sunk cost in Howard (and Rollins and Utley to a lesser extent). Amaro wanted two elite-level prospects for those three guys at the trade deadline and, predictably, nobody’s giving up an elite anything for a bad first baseman, a second baseman with serious injury issues, and a shortstop way past his prime. But Amaro can’t recognize that; he seems to believe these guys are all still their 2008 versions, when they’re clearly not.
What? Sources have already come out and said that RAJ is looking to move Howard with the Phillies eating “a significant portion” of his salary – and no one has said anything as to what he’s looking to get back. As far as Utley and Rollins go (2 guys who finished 1st and 3rd by fWAR in the NL at their respective positions), they have 10-5 rights – meaning, it doesn’t matter what RAJ asks for them, the two of them still have to ok the trade. Next time you make assertions, at least try to base them in reality.
The Phillies had to overpay him to try to be competitive and if you remember Cole Hamels had some arm issues over last winter. The Phillies went all in last year and failed so we now rebuild. Lastly, Burnett’s problems were not with fielding but injuries and excessive walks and high pitch counts which made him a 5-6 inning pitcher. The Orioles seem more of a contender than a Russell Martin less Pirates team.
Surprise! Somehow Burnett will have to survive on $8m instead of $12m. I wonder how he will make it.
Wasn’t this supposed to happen last year?
They all thought they had him pegged…..
so does this signing eliminate anyone from the mlbtr contest? lol
Just everyone!
Well I got this one right so…..
Missed on this one but I’m still batting .500
Hopefully most whiffed on this one. I had the Royals, then switched to Orioles
I had him retiring.
I had him retiring as well. He contemplated it last year… thought this year he would’ve.
$8.25 million for Burnett….and moments later, $325 million for Stanton.
Oriole fans must be very happy right now. Dodged a bullet with Burnett.
Good move by the Pirates. This still leaves room to sign Martin.
Very interesting. Maybe he can revitalize back in Pittsburgh.
You mean re-revitalize?
Some guys just play better in certain situations. Burnett was comfortable in Pittsburgh and now he has a chance to finish his career in the place where he enjoyed playing the most. I’m happy with the signing, glad to see him back in a Pirates uniform.
Sweet! Batting .500 in a small sample size. I knew he’d go back to Pittsburgh.
Makes sense he moves back to a team he had success with and a contender.
Surprised, but impressive signing for the Pirates. (also a wakeup call for the Phillies, taking $4M+ less to leave). Also, better move for Pittsburgh to do this 1yr deal for AJ than commit multiple yrs to Volquez
Good move for the Pirates. At that salary, he just needs to eat innings until Morton/Taillon/Kingham get healthy and/or ready for the bigs. If he pitches well, that’s a bonus.
Nice to see them working aggressively to fill their holes.
That’s a pretty high number for a guy who pitched almost 1 full run above the NL average last season. Granted Philly plays in a sandbox, but still if he’s getting 8.5 mil per, I can’t imagine what the top guys will wind up getting.
I’d argue his stats warrant the contract. Besides, getting a decent ML arm on a one year contract is even worth a slight overpay (Volquez last year being a good example). This frees them up to target a bigger name on a longer contract and replace AJ next year with one of the talented arms in the upper minors. I’m hoping they also aggressively target one of the young Padres pitchers.
Agreed, it’s just if a 38 year old pitcher with a 4.59 ERA is worth 8.5 mil on the open market, then anyone interested in SP better be prepared to cough up a lot of money.
Well, maybe Colon has some minor trade value now. Once the big names sign, maybe the Mets can finally move him and get a small piece in return and clear the entire salary.
He also was a pitcher playing on a team that relied very little on advanced defensive metrics, shifted less than any team in baseball and had a MI combo that should be collecting Social Security throwing to a guy at 1B that should have been out of baseball 4 years ago.
He had a 4.09 FIP and a 3.85 xFIP suggesting that his ERA was overly inflated due to bad lack and poor defense behind him. Also, pitching the entire year with a sport hernia didn’t help his cause.
If he can get his BB/9 rate down, and Pittsburgh now has two of the top 5 pitch framing catchers in baseball in Stewart and Cervelli, he’ll be more than okay as a #3/#4 starter.
Saying that about the Phillies MI is offbase. Utley and Rollins were 3.6 and 3.9 WAR players with a solid 0.6 and 1.0 DWAR, respectively. By that measure, both were in the top 6 MLB players at their position both overall and defensively.
That’s in a vacuum – the lack of shifting really hurt a pitcher like Burnett. Utley and Rollins are still solid – but getting worse and the Phils’ defense at 1st, 3rd and all three outfield positions is brutal.
I was talking about the middle infield social security comment, not about the shift or other positions. Sorry, I just feel really defensive about Utley and Rollins, who are now tremendously underappreciated here in Philly, especially Rollins. People here are clamoring for these Phillies legends to leave (without having any ideas for viable replacements) and too many people don’t see that even though they’re no longer MVP candidates, they’re still good players, especially considering they’re in their mid 30s and playing solid defense at demanding positions. People love to talk about how this team needs to get younger, but other than Howard and the injured Cliff Lee, all the veterans this year were productive. CF, 3B, and LF were the positions with black holes this year (in addition to 1B), and they were all manned by young guys.
That’s true, but at this point if you can get real return for Rollins, especially, you just do it and play Galvis and his ++ glove there until you find a real player for the position. Rollins has had 5 straight season with an OPS+ at exactly league average, and his defense, while still good, is in decline.. He’ll be 36 in a couple weeks. The list of ML shortstops still productive as regulars at 36 is pretty short. Utley is still very good but is playing on chronically bad knees and would have, I’m guessing, massive trade value if the Phils were willing to deal him. He played virtually every game last season and I think his trade value will never be higher. Kansas City, for example, made the world series with bad 2B. They have lots of good young players/prospects. can you imagine Philly with Duffy/Finnegan/Escobar, for example? That’s a pretty sweet rebuild start.
ERA is a lousy way to evaluate Burnett. He’s throwing a lot of groundballs now, the Phils never shift, the defense is bad all around. The Pirates have a much better infield defense and Burnett’s FIP (fielding-independent pitching) numbers suggest he needs a better defense behind him now. And 8.5 million dollars, in today’s game which is flooded with money, is absolutely nothing.
Never much liked AJ, but good for him walking from that much money to play where he feels comfortable.
This is a showing of loyalty in the game and it is a great deal for Pittsburgh to bring in a good experienced starter for a discount
Great to have one of my all-time favorite pitchers back with the Pirates. Welcome back, A.J.!
I’m glad to see this. Wish we saw it more. It’s really easy to root for a guy who is on your favorite team because he wants to be there, not because that’s where he makes the most money. You also have to think it does a lot for the team in terms of culture and the clubhouse
Pirates need to add 2 more SP still….choose between Volquez (more likely) and Liriano for a multi-year deal, then maybe add another 1 year deal on the typical Pirates bounce-back candidate (everyone loves Brett Anderson so why not).
Can’t rely on both Locke and Worley in the starting 5, Then hope either Kingham or Taillon makes it to the majors this year, again can’t depend on either doing this for sure. Pirates need to stock up on pitching to cover for the loss of RMart.
You guys forget he was pitching with that groin issue. Also our infield defense except j-roll is spotty. Im pretty sure the Pirates are hoping he pitches close to a 3.50 Era than the 4.50 he had here.
Having worked in baseball, I wanted to share that the assumption the players want to win and that losing can be miserable. Yes, it’s true, but MOST of the players good enough to make it to the majors learn early in the minors that winning isn’t very important (and 3-5 years of this can create mental habits). A single case in point:
I’d see guys told to only throw off-speed stuff in a game (or only fastballs), the other team would sometimes even know this… Look at the State College Spikes when associated with the Pirates for example.
AJ Burnett is my second favorite active former Pittsburgh Pirate named Burnett. My first is Sean.