One of the most popular items on the holiday wishlist of New York Yankees fans was a trading partner that would take A.J. Burnett out of the Bronx. Nobody cared where he went or who came back in return. They just did not want A.J. Burnett toeing the rubber in New York Yankees pinstripes or the road grey for any more starts. I’m definitely no Santa Clause, but I think we’ll all get our wish…we’ll just have wait another year for it. After seeing Derek Lowe and Carlos Zambrano get traded this off-season, I am confident that the New York Yankees can find a new home for A.J. Burnett; but after quickly examining the Derek Lowe and Carlos Zambrano moves, there appear to be three things that we need to keep in mind:
Burnett needs to be down to the last year on his contract – I’ve pretty much already touched on this. As bad as Burnett has been over the past two seasons, I feel like it would take an idiot to acquire him with two more years left on his contract. At least on the last year of his contract a team can swallow one poor season and move on. On that note, maybe Yankees fans should consider this his last season in New York. That’s definitely an uplifting thought.
The Yankees will need to eat a large chunk of the remaining salary – This is far from a surprise to anybody. The Yankees have already expressed a willingness to eat $8 million of the remaining $33 million. I say it’s going to take more than that even if the Yanks are trading Burnett in his walk year. He’ll have $16.5 million left on his deal heading into the 2013 season and I think the Yanks will have to eat at least $10 million. That number was chosen more for simplicity than anything else, but either way, I don’t think eating $8 mil is going to cut it.
Nobody exciting will come back in return – The Chicago Cubs received Chris Volstad from the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves received a LOOGY from the Cleveland Indians. That does not bode well for any return that the Yankees figure to receive. Check out A.J.’s age and his numbers. What else would you expect?
It would be nice for the New York Yankees to bring in one useful prospect in exchange for A.J. Burnett, but that’s probably not happening. The most important thing might be freeing up a rotation spot. It isn’t a stretch to suggest that the Yanks may need to free up 2-3 rotation spots to start 2013. Between Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos and the modest chance of one of Zack Greinke, Cole Hamels or Matt Cain finding their way into pinstripes, there are a lot of rotation possibilities moving forward. Depending on what happens over the next 365 days or so, dumping A.J. may be necessary simply to create flexibility.
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4 Rants to “The New York Yankees Will Trade A.J. Burnett…...”
Couple of things occur to me: we could’ve signed Lowe instead of Burnett, we could’ve traded for Lowe instead of Vazquez, and we might have been able to trade Burnett for either Lowe or Zambrano. As for an idiot GM, well there are a few of them. If only the Giants needed pitching!
And of course you’re are absolutely right about the 3 necessary ingredients for trading this clown. I’m hoping he has his usual good first half, Noesi or whomever tears it up in AAA, and we can trade him next July.
To be honest, I think signing Derek Lowe would have resulted in similar frustration. His deal was shorter and maybe the Yankees would have been able to get rid of him like the Braves did. I’m not too worked up over that though. Even the Vazquez deal didn’t bother me at the time. I mean, he had a pretty filthy season in 2009 and he was slotted into the No. 4 slot in our rotation. Obviously it didn’t work out, but I’m not sure trading for Lowe instead would have led to a better series of events – in fact it might have been worse. At the very least we can look at Javy Vazquez and know that he turned into Dante Bichette, Jr. while Lowe only netted the Braves a LOOGY. As far as the present is concerned, you bring up a good point. In the heat of a pennant race and/or Wild Card chase teams will be scrambling for pitching as they always do. Burnett will still have roughly $23 million left on his deal by the ASB/Trading Deadline, but a team that is desperate for pitching might be willing to roll the dice on something. It’s a long shot, but as you pointed out, there are plenty of GMs who have talked themselves into idiot decisions.
By that point, I see no incentive to trade AJ Burnett. When you really break down his splits, he’s not as bad as people like to make him seem. He certainly has not come close to earning the huge salary he receives, but he’s still productive. If you look at his stats the last three seasons, you can basically pin his super-inflated ERA on one dreadful month. In ’09 and ’11 it was August. In ’10 it was June. As for the other months, he’s been a guy who can give innings and allow an offense like New York’s a chance to win on a lot of occasions. He also came up big in ’09 in each round of the postseason and again last season against Detroit.
If you can disregard his salary, and consider him to be a 4th or 5th starter, he is more valuable by keeping on the team than by trading him away, still paying his salary, and receiving no real talent in return. And maybe, by some miracle, he’d qualify as a Type B and we could get at least a supplemental pick when he signs elsewhere.
That’s not a bad observation at all. His dreadful stretches are usually short and sandwiched by stretches that are simply “meh”. Of course the so-so and slightly below average stretches are viewed under an even brighter negative light because of the 3 IP, 8 ER blow ups that he has very now and then. Depending on what the starting rotation looks like in 2013, you might actually be right about keeping him. A guy who will eat innings and generally give the Yankees’ explosive offense a chance to win the game is not a bad thing to have in the 5th spot of the rotation and it could beat paying him to pitch for someone else. I think a lot of it will really come down to which of the prospects are ready to break into the big league rotation and if any true upgrades find themselves in pinstripes between now and then.
Couple of things occur to me: we could’ve signed Lowe instead of Burnett, we could’ve traded for Lowe instead of Vazquez, and we might have been able to trade Burnett for either Lowe or Zambrano. As for an idiot GM, well there are a few of them. If only the Giants needed pitching!
And of course you’re are absolutely right about the 3 necessary ingredients for trading this clown. I’m hoping he has his usual good first half, Noesi or whomever tears it up in AAA, and we can trade him next July.
To be honest, I think signing Derek Lowe would have resulted in similar frustration. His deal was shorter and maybe the Yankees would have been able to get rid of him like the Braves did. I’m not too worked up over that though. Even the Vazquez deal didn’t bother me at the time. I mean, he had a pretty filthy season in 2009 and he was slotted into the No. 4 slot in our rotation. Obviously it didn’t work out, but I’m not sure trading for Lowe instead would have led to a better series of events – in fact it might have been worse. At the very least we can look at Javy Vazquez and know that he turned into Dante Bichette, Jr. while Lowe only netted the Braves a LOOGY. As far as the present is concerned, you bring up a good point. In the heat of a pennant race and/or Wild Card chase teams will be scrambling for pitching as they always do. Burnett will still have roughly $23 million left on his deal by the ASB/Trading Deadline, but a team that is desperate for pitching might be willing to roll the dice on something. It’s a long shot, but as you pointed out, there are plenty of GMs who have talked themselves into idiot decisions.
By that point, I see no incentive to trade AJ Burnett. When you really break down his splits, he’s not as bad as people like to make him seem. He certainly has not come close to earning the huge salary he receives, but he’s still productive. If you look at his stats the last three seasons, you can basically pin his super-inflated ERA on one dreadful month. In ’09 and ’11 it was August. In ’10 it was June. As for the other months, he’s been a guy who can give innings and allow an offense like New York’s a chance to win on a lot of occasions. He also came up big in ’09 in each round of the postseason and again last season against Detroit.
If you can disregard his salary, and consider him to be a 4th or 5th starter, he is more valuable by keeping on the team than by trading him away, still paying his salary, and receiving no real talent in return. And maybe, by some miracle, he’d qualify as a Type B and we could get at least a supplemental pick when he signs elsewhere.
That’s not a bad observation at all. His dreadful stretches are usually short and sandwiched by stretches that are simply “meh”. Of course the so-so and slightly below average stretches are viewed under an even brighter negative light because of the 3 IP, 8 ER blow ups that he has very now and then. Depending on what the starting rotation looks like in 2013, you might actually be right about keeping him. A guy who will eat innings and generally give the Yankees’ explosive offense a chance to win the game is not a bad thing to have in the 5th spot of the rotation and it could beat paying him to pitch for someone else. I think a lot of it will really come down to which of the prospects are ready to break into the big league rotation and if any true upgrades find themselves in pinstripes between now and then.