Pirates president wants A.J. Burnett back if he doesn’t retire

A.J. Burnett has said he’s weighing whether to re-sign with the Pirates or retire at age 36 and Pirates president Frank Coonelly left no doubt that he’d like Burnett to re-sign for 2014, telling Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

We’d like to have A.J. back. Everybody has made that clear; we’ve made it clear to A.J. He’s got a decision to make, first and foremost, whether it’s time for him to spend more time with his family or whether he thinks he can go another year. If he decides that he wants to come back, we definitely want A.J. back.

Burnett pondering retirement could actually work in the Pirates’ favor in that he presumably won’t be looking for a multi-year contract. They also have the option of making him a qualifying offer, in which case Burnett could accept and get a one-year deal for around $14 million or the Pirates would get draft pick compensation if he were to sign elsewhere.

Burnett struggled in his playoff start, but threw 393 innings with a 3.41 ERA in two years with the Pirates, including 191 innings with a 3.30 ERA this season to finish a five-year, $82.5 million contract handed out by the Yankees once upon a time.

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