WHY BURNETT'S CONTRACT'S CLOGGING UP THE DEAL

Sure, Burnett’s owed a lot of money in an off-season where very, very few teams are spending much money at all. The Pirates certainly aren’t, they have a payroll of about $40 million, so logically, while the Pirates may be a good fit for the Yankees to unload AJ Burnett, it’s got to be done strategically. There is no doubt the Pirates want AJ Burnett, but the Yankees aren’t desperate either here. They aren’t going to just give him away and I've stated that time and time again. Remember, at the end of the day, it's business.

While the Pirates will hopefully pay $13 to $15 million in the remaining contract owed to AJ Burnett, the Yankees still want prospects and we all know by now that the Pirates are offering no one exciting... and I apologize to the mothers of those non-exciting prospects...no offense. If this whole mess continues over whether or not to trade Burnett for "blah" prospects, what will happen next?

I wrote extensively about AJ Burnett all last weekend because I was thoroughly convinced the Yankees and Pirates would finalize a deal by Sunday's end. Well, now it’s Tuesday night and nothing has been done, it's like a stalemate and it all has to do with Burnett's bad contract. If this contract wasn't so lousy, the Yankees wouldn't be bitching about bad prospects. They want as much as they can get for Burnett at this point... you can't hardly blame them, but we're clearly on hold with this deal. There’s a clog in the works, and so, 2 things can happen; the Yankees walk away like Ken Rosenthal is suggesting and they keep AJ Burnett until the trade deadline and try and see if they can get more in return on Burnett…read HERE, or they find a suitor now and get rid of the poor guy and stop dragging this thing along.

I wrote SABATHIA & BURNETT EXCHANGE TEXTS: PART 4 this morning and posted it and believe me, it was meant to be light hearted piece because, let’s face it, Burnett must being going nuts right now. Think about this... God forbid talks break down the the Yankees decide not to trade Burnett now.... Why would AJ Burnett feel like playing and pitching his best for a team like the New York Yankees who clearly doesn't want him? If I was Burnett I'd be so pissed I'd suck on purpose... and that's probably not too far off than how was pitching anyway... I kid, I kid. The point is, if Ken Rosenthal is right and the Yankees pull Burnett back out of frustration over these Pirates prospects, I will suggest they’ll have a bigger problem… an AJ Burnett with lack of motivation and lack of interest in being a New York Yankee. Don’t you think? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just pound the pavement as a GM right now and just keep knocking on doors until AJ Burnett can be traded? Otherwise… it’s just torture for everyone, isn’t it? Whatever the case, someone needs to blink, the suspense is killing me… and selfishly, I want this deal done by the time spring training starts… any day now gentlemen... any day.

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