Jim Bowden of ESPN tweeted today that the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees are “close to finalizing” a deal that would send right-handed pitcher A.J. Burnett to Pittsburgh, and that a deal is likely to be completed the next 24 hours.
Yesterday, the Yankees set a “soft deadline” of Saturday to get the deal done.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted today that the Yankees will pay $20 million of Burnett’s remaining $33 million contract, meaning the Pirates will pick up $13 million.
The Pirates were known to prefer to pitch more money into the deal rather than give any legitimate prospects, so the notion that the Pirates are coming up from their proposed $10 million payment isn’t a surprise.
The Yankees will still likely receive a low-tier prospect or two in return.
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