WHY I'M JONESING FOR A BURNETT TRADE

Who's Garrett Jones? Look, they know him in Pittsburgh, what’s the big deal if you don’t know who Garrett Jones is? Is he not a big enough star for you? Well, the Yankees need a lefty bat and he may fit the mold especially if the Pirates are interested in bringing on AJ Burnett.

Now look, let's not get all nutty about this. This story was floated by Buster Olney and yes, it's getting traction. Let's understand 1 part of this though, the Yankees want Garrett Jones, according the Olney, Read HERE... but the Pirates don't want to move him. Well... there you go...rumors at their best.

There is a much bigger problem however if they DID want to give the Yankees Garrett Jones for Burnett... the Yankees would have to eat a chunk of that salary, and in turn would most likely need to say goodbye to their hopes to sign Eric Chavez or a Johnny Damon. Look, If they got Jones in a trade, consider him to BE your lefty bat, filling that void for a lefty hitter that Girardi recently spoke about. Then, the only way they could sign Chavez would be if they found some funny money somewhere to sign him for $1.5 Million or less.

The Burnett puzzle is unique, quite simply because no one’s really spending this off-season. Sure you can point to the Tigers and the Marlins and the Angels as big spenders, but let’s face it, that’s it. Even the Red Sox are doing butkus. So if the Yankees are going to ship Burnett somewhere, there is no way in hell they can do it unless they eat some of that remaining salary of about $30 million. If they find a team dumb enough to pick it up, good for them, but I don’t see it happening. This, in turn will not allow them to throw a few extra bucks at that lefty bat they really wanted. So Raul Ibanez would need to take a pay cut, so would Hideki Matsui or Damon. Now, if the Yankees did eat the majority of that salary, give AJ to Pittsburgh in a trade for a Garrett Jones, well, case closed and we move into spring training with Garrett Jones in pinstripes.

But who is Garrett Jones and should we be excited about this? I think the majority of you would be happy if we got a rock in return for Aj Burnett, but the reality is, not only is Garrett Jones a good idea, he’s a good fit too. Jones is 30 years old and Jones can hit home runs. He’s been around since 2007 and has a career .254 AVG with 60 home runs and a SLG of .450 in 4 seasons. Last season he hit 16 home runs and batted .243. By comparison, Damon is 38 years old, and hit the same amount of homers last season. Ibanez hit 20 homers and his average was .245, plus, he’s 39. Look, if you’re going to go lefty at this point, you might as well go alittle younger and go with someone under the radar and try and get rid of Burnett along the way. At least I would imagine that's what Cashman’s thinking is.

So yeah... we have some last minute buzz in Yankeeland, right before Spring Training. It’s interesting isn’t it? Just days away and to think that Burnett could be shipped off, well, to some it’s like Christmas morning. We’ll just have to wait and see it guess, won’t we?

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