Can the New
York Yankees really convince another baseball team to take AJ Burnett off their
hands?
Brian
Cashman has pulled off a number of stunning moves in his tenure as Yankees
general manager. But it would be completely shocking to see him somehow sell one
of his GM counterparts on the merits of Mr. Erratic.
To a certain
extent, I can understand why another team would be interested in Burnett. He
has undeniable talent and has pitched some very solid games in big situations
for the Yankees. Burnett helped stave off elimination for the Yankees in the
2011 divisional series, even though it was only for one game. And truthfully, I
think Burnett could do well in a place like Pittsburgh with extremely low expectations, a lot of young talent and a lack of media glare.
But if I
were running another team, I would wonder why Burnett has not been able to harness all his
talent into a winning record, even with the mighty Yankees lineup backing him
up and relatively low expectations in 2010 and 2011. I would question whether
Burnett’s psyche is simply too fragile to ever live up to his potential, even though
the Yankees, and Cashman and manager Joe Girardi in particular, have gone out
of their way to protect him.
The Yankees
are probably going to have to pay almost all of Burnett’s remaining salary over
the final two years of his contract, which even in this age of austerity they
would happily do in exchange for a good, young prospect. But if I’m the
Pittsburgh Pirates, or any other baseball team for that matter, I probably smellblood in the water with the Yankees desperate to move Burnett before the start
of the 2012 season. If they wait long enough, they might even get the
Yankees to give Burnett away for practically nothing.
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