We’ve been tracking the Yankees-Pirates’ talks about A.J. Burnett. The Yankees want to unload him. The Pirates, for some reason, want him. Earlier today we heard that the Pirates were willing to absorb as much as $10 million of the $33 million still owed to Burnett over the next two years.
One would think that’s enough. Joel Sherman of the New York Post says that’s not the case, though: the Yankees want the Pirates to pay even more.
Seems excessive. A.J. Burnett is not worth more than $5 million a year over the next to years to a team like the Pirates. The Indians, by point of comparison, are paying only $5 million of Derek Lowe’s contract for 2012. That seems to be the market for dead weight with a shred of potential, no?
